International. Station Commander Scott Kelly and flight engineer Kjell Lindgren spent about two hours on their planned 61/2-hour spacewalk when the ammonia flakes were ejected — Lindgren reported intermittent flakes of toxic ammonia while making connections on a space station cooling line.
The primary cooling system was then recharged with ammonia and put back into service. NASA hoped to save the spare, but Kelly and Lindgren ran out of time to fold and cover their extended radiator panels.
NASA spokesman Dan Huot said work for a spacewalk is likely to have been rescheduled in the future, as there are no more spacewalks scheduled for 2015.
Ammonia is used to cool electronics at the orbital station, and the thermal system has been plagued by problems.
Just after halfway on the spacewalk, it ended up topping off ammonia in the system with about 3.4 kilograms each in a primary reserve tank and, NASA said.
Image: NASA
