Update: NASA Pushing on Spacewalks, Resupply Mission Moved to January 2014

NASA managers decided to move the resupply mission of a commercial cargo to January 2014 to prioritize the scheduled spacewalks that will repair the broken coolant system.

NASA announced at 3:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday that it is delaying the forthcoming resupply mission of the Orbital Sciences commercial cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) due to a faulty pump module, and plans to recommence the mission with spacewalks. The resupply mission was originally scheduled on Thursday.

The halt of the mission is to give way for the repair of the faulty pump module, which stopped working just a week ago.

The Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus space capsule, placed on top of the Antares rocket, is rescheduled to be launched towards the end of the January.

To fix the defective part of the spacecraft, NASA is currently planning to send a couple of Expedition 38 astronauts outside the space craft.

NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio will take out the malfunctioning pump module, which is
associated with one of the station's two outer cooling loops that circulate ammonia outside the station to keep both internal and external equipment cool, and replace it with an existing spare part that is placed on an external stowage platform.

The six and a half-hour extra-vehicular activity (EVA) that aims to repair the spacecraft will set in motion at 7:10 a.m. on December 21, 23, and 25 and it will be aired in NASA TV at 6:15 a.m. It will be followed by a Beta-Angle Cut-out on December 29. Meaning to say, the earliest time for the launch of Cygnus is on January 9, 2014 -- in the course of the successful implementation of the contingency EVAs.

The briefing for the Wednesday’s spacewalks, which will be hosted by Michael Suffredini, International Space Station program manager, Dina Contella, International Space Station flight director, and Allison Bolinger, lead spacewalk officer, will be held in the Administrations Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Media may witness the briefing at the center and other participating NASA centers.