Washington: NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins conducted a 5 hour and 28 minute spacewalk on Saturday to remove a faulty ammonia pump on the ISS.
A second spacewalk to install a new unit has now been scheduled for Tuesday, December 24.
The extra day will allow time for the crew to resize a spare spacesuit on the space station for use by Mastracchio. During repressurization of the station`s airlock following the 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.
The flight control team at NASA`s Johnson Space Center in Houston decided to switch to a backup suit for the next spacewalk.
This issue is not related to the spacesuit water leak that was seen during a July spacewalk by European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA `s Chris Cassidy.
Both Mastracchio and Hopkins reported dry conditions repeatedly throughout Saturday`s activities and the two were never in danger.
