BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan — At 6:01 a.m. central standard time on Saturday, Dec. 21 Col. Michael S.Hopkins, a 1987 School of the Osage valedictorian and NASA Flight Engineer, along with NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio completed the first of three emergency spacewalks to replace a broken cooling pump on the International Space Station (ISS).
It was a proud moment for Hopkins’ family and many in the Lake area, and a crucial moment for Hopkins and the rest of the space station crew.
Read about Hopkins' history at the Lake of the Ozarks.
The spacewalk, which lasted 5-hours and 28-minutes, was called for this week due to a faulty valve that caused a partial shutdown in the system that regulates equipment temperature in the ISS. At the same time, inside the space station, Japanese astronaut Kocihi Wakata operated a 50-ft. robotic arm, hoisting Mastracchio, with his boots strapped to a metal foot plate, on the robotic arm while Hopkins free-floated as the space station orbited the earth at a speed of five miles per second. Saturday’s mission was to disconnect the ammonia pump, which is about the size of a refrigerator.
A second spacewalk, previously scheduled for Monday, Dec. 23 was rescheduled to Tuesday, Dec. 24. According to the NASA website, the extra day will allow time for the crew to resize a spare spacesuit for use by Mastracchio. During repressurization of the station's airlock following Saturday’s spacewalk, a spacesuit configuration issue put the suit Mastracchio was wearing in question for the next excursion—specifically whether water entered into the suit's sublimator inside the airlock.
On Tuesday, the astronauts will remove the pump so it can be replaced with a spare. A third spacewalk is planned for Christmas Day, when the failed pump will be shuttled away and final installations made on its replacement. According to NASA, due to the success on Saturday there is a chance the astronauts will be able to complete all their work in two spacewalks.
Engineers tried to fix the problem from the ground, but eventually decided they needed to replace the ammonia pump. The six-man crew was never in danger, but NASA officials wanted the problem fixed quickly.
The two astronauts wore extra safety gear as they worked outside, to prevent a recurrence of the helmet flooding that nearly drowned another astronaut last July. According to NASA, Saturday’s space suit problems were unrelated to that incident. The astronauts, with snorkels in their suits and water-absorbent pads in their helmets, stayed dry but Mastracchio’s toes became extremely cold. Despite mission controls efforts to continue, Mastracchio said, “I’d like to stow this old module and kind of clean up and call it a day.” He was having more than temperature problems but would not say what the nature of the difficulties were. Adding to the suspense, during the spacewalk a smoke alarm went off in the space station. It was later found to be a false alarm.
Saturday’s spacewalk was the 175th in support of space station assembly and maintenance.
Astronauts Luca Parmitano (left) and Mike Hopkins change a valve on the CO2 removal system at the International Space Station (ISS) on Oct. 30, 2013.
Hopkins recently participated in a spacewalk to replace a broken cooling pump on the ISS.
Hopkins mother, Barbara Duffy, lives in Camdenton. “It’s been quite an exciting rush,” Barbara said, adding she was relieved to hear the first spacewalk accomplished even more than had been planned.
In a telephone interview on Saturday, Duffy said, “It is kind of nerve-racking. I got up at 5:15 a.m. to see this critical spacewalk. Even though I know where he is and I get to see him on NASA TV quite a bit, he is still constantly on my mind.”
