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TWO AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS made quick progress during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Saturday to replace a broken equipment cooling system, NASA said today.
The risky outing was called for earlier this week after a cooling valve failed, leaving NASA no other option but to replace an ammonia pump at the orbiting lab.
The problem caused a partial shutdown in the system that regulates equipment temperature at the space station, but did not pose any danger to the six-man crew, NASA said.
Saturday’s spacewalk began just after noon and ended at 5.30pm, an hour earlier than planned.
Astronauts made fast work of their key task for the day, disconnecting the old pump, and were also able to take on the extra task of removing the pump.
Extra progress
A second spacewalk is set for Monday to work on installing the new pump module.
“They will be replanning that spacewalk,” a NASA commentator said, in light of the extra progress made on Saturday.
The venture outside the space station was the seventh for veteran spacewalker Rick Mastracchio, 53, and the first for rookie Mike Hopkins, 44.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata operated the station’s 15 meter robotic arm, hoisting Mastracchio and the refrigerator-sized ammonia pump module from one section of the lab to another.
With Mastracchio grasping the 350 kilogram module and unable to see where he was going, Wakata eased him into the right spot for stowing the pump.
The two US astronauts sported helmet cameras, and NASA TV showed the operations in real-time from the perspective of the spacewalkers.
NASA also had to rig up some last-minute contingency gear inside the US-made spacesuits, which had not been used since a helmet water leak nearly drowned a European astronaut in July.
Now the helmets carry an extra absorption pad and a snorkel inside, in case there is a malfunction in the water pump system in the 35-year-old suits.
Squishy feelings
The investigation into the cause of the helmet leak is ongoing. Hopkins wore the suit that had the problem, though its inner water pump had been replaced.
NASA checked with the astronauts at regular intervals throughout the day to make sure they were not feeling any “squishy” sensation behind their necks, which might have indicated a water buildup and would cut short the spacewalk, space agency commentators said.
The astronauts reported dry conditions and no problems in their spacesuits or gloves.
At one point, Mastracchio said his toes were getting cold, but they warmed again once he alerted mission control in Houston and heaters were activated in his spacesuit boots.
The astronauts trained for the emergency spacewalks by watching video of a previous outing to replace an ammonia pump in 2010.
A third spacewalk was initially projected for 25 December but it is possible the astronauts will be able to complete all their work Monday.
If not, the Christmas Day outing would be the first since 1974, when a pair of NASA astronauts did work outside the Skylab space station.
Saturday’s spacewalk was the 175th for maintenance and repair aboard the 15-year-old ISS, NASA said.
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Good luck and keep at it. Skibbereen ambulance was saved so don’t give up!
: )
If the government get their way, WRH will no longer be a specialist centre & Waterford & Clonmel patients will be sent to Cork which is already over-stretched & Wexford & Kilkenny patients to Dublin hospitals which are also over-stretched. Financially & Logically breaking up the South -East hospital group makes no sense. 500,000 people in The South-East are relying on WRH for specialist care. This issue is way more important than party politics.
Actually this isn’t true. If the HSE believed that 500,000 people were relying on WRH then there wouldn’t be a problem. The problem is that Clonmel typically refers to Cork and St Luke’s and Wexford to Dublin. Relations between the South-Eastern hospitals are fraught. The HSE plan has, until recently, to preserve WRH as a tertiary centre, but it can’t do that unless sufficient patients are referred from outside the Waterford area. The protests about the ‘downgrading’ have been loud from Waterford but absent from the areas you state ‘need’ Waterford hospital, like Kilkenny and South Tipp, but who currently don’t use it.
Actually no Joe. A very large presence from the surrounding counties yesterday. This is part of a bigger conspiracy against Waterford, led by Hogan, Howlin and Co.
If its the case that there is such regional support why did St Luke’s, Wexford and Clonmel hospitals ask specifically not to be linked to Waterford in the new hospital groups. It looks like Kilkenny and Wexford will be linked to St Vincent’s and the Mater and Clonmel to CUH. My own view and most peoples view is that it would be most sensible to have a South East hospitals group, but the greatest opposition isn’t from the Government or the HSE or ‘Dublin’, it’s within the hospitals in your own region.
Your right on where the basis for this change is coming for ok Joe, its most from a group of consultants in st Lukes, there is no point in me speculating on their motives but I honestly don’t feel them as clear cut as best care services for the region. They would be more aligned with the betterment of their own departments funding. Now we all want every hospital to be top of their game but without a regional focus to centers of excellence I don’t believe people will get the best care. There are buses running daily to WRH from wex, Kk, Carlow and tip, for cancer treatment, dialysis, scans .. These people having to travel to Dublin or cork for an identical treatment already in place in the region I think is insane.
Putting aside the further distances and heavier traffic, St Vincents and CUH are in themselves fine hospitals, but they are stretched to capacity as it is, full trollies lo.g waiting lists and hiring embargos. It simply doesn’t make sense to me how a group of consultants would believe this to be a smart decision, The pressure that these centers are under would require them to rufuse or delay patients, or giving the feeding hospitals more ability to deal with the patients themselves?….
It’s funny to see Ciara Conway desperately scrambling trying to save her seat. Herself, & Coffey & Deasy will find it very hard to get re-elected if this downgrade happens. 4 seats up for grab in Waterford constituency next time out. Could Waterford end up a FF/FG/Lab free zone????
We’re already FF free. Good start.
Coffey is a joke he jumped on this bandwagon.peacefull protests will get us nowhere come on they even had dancers at it yesterday.why arnt we picketing goverment buildings in the city on weekdays not this organised thing on saturdays going getting a permit of tge gardai to march.
TFM. – look at the inane press releases from those three this week. A week when the future of the hospital is at stake. Says it all. Not one word about WRH.
People who are ill are being forced to travel further and further for treatment. Is this helping in their recovery? I don’t think so! PLEASE somebody give the Dept of Health and the HSE a transfusion of Common Sense!
It just doesn’t make any sense! I live in the North Kildare and they have taken our ambulance away on a Thursday between the hours of 7am – 7pm. Desicions and choices being made by Reilly & co. with absolutely no regard for human life. Glad to see so many people out marching, West Cork managed to retain their ambulances through sheer people power and a vigorous campaign!
You forgot to plug the fb page Lorna :P
Local media put the crowd at 5,000-6,000.
The South-East region has the highest unemployment rate in the country yet new companies here receive only half the support of the BMW regions. That is completely unfair & puts the region at a huge disadvantage. That needs to change.
Just look at FG/LAb on the city council in Waterford council they got rid of the local binmen,they took the contract off the ESB workers in Waterford and gave it to airtricity in .Cork. They have put the water department into Bord Gais and their putting that up for sale.Their selling the forestry sector off to the private sector more Waterford workers sacked.They stopped the remedial work inn the council estates and sacked local builders and now they want to move half the departments from the city council to Dungarvan and take on their 6 million dept and your asked to pay property tax to pay for it.Not to forget the VEC gone to Wexford forcing the Waterford workers out of work.We dont need vandals in Waterford we have the pact sharing out the money and selling out our city and hospital.
FG & FF support water charges and property tax. Be careful what you wish for.
Their representatives on Waterford City council are mere sheep John. And put the political party before this great City.
Well done to everyone who attended, stand up and be strong
Reilly hasn’t a clue trying to tell people how to run the health service he can’t run his own affairs
Ur voice will be heard even after tis Tuesday do not give up
Take to the streets every Saturday – what about a constant picket 24hrs a day on all government offices and TD offices – everybody does 3-4 hrs just a taught
Well done everybody I would say there were close to 5000 people there
But state media again playing it down 2000-3000
The reason tertiary services in Waterford are under threat is that people from Kilkenny, Wexford, South Tipp and even some from Waterford prefer to be referred to Dublin or Cork Hospitals for complex management. The population of Waterford and environs is too small to support a tertiary hospital.
The only way you can get Waterford to function as a Tertiary referral hospital is if you can change the referral patterns from St Luke’s, Wexford and Clonmel and convince the staff there that WRH can offer the same level of care as the large teaching hospitals. The problem is that it simply can’t offer the same services at the moment. So how do you implement the preservation of WRH? Remove the choice from people attending the other hospitals? Marching up and down the main street in Waterford isn’t going to help this. If you can persuade people to march in Kilkenny or Wexford it might.
Joe. People from the areas mentioned WERE marching. Sweet Jesus.
Sweet Jesus or otherwise there have been no demonstrations on the streets of Kilkenny, Clonmel or Wexford to preserve WRH. I think the government is pretty clear that the people of Waterford are worried about losing (or more accurately being unable to support) specialist services, but the argument here is that there is a substantial demand for WRH to be the regional hub outside of Waterford and to show that you’ d need positive support from the other 3 general hospitals. You don’t have it
According to you Joe……..according to you.
Joe, imagine this was happening to any other city
If you think this is bad, wait until HIQA sees that NCHD’s are working 80hr weeks…. There won’t be a hospital outside of the 4 main cities left open.
What are the 4 main cities?
Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.
Currently Waterford is every bit a city as much as Galway (a lot longer than 1985). Sure lets downgrade Galway and limerick too. This stinks to high heaven at this stage, if you lived here it would be the only way you would realise the battering this city is getting from all angles.
#theforgottencity
Waterford isn’t a national tertiary referral centre, the problem is that LUH and GUH are referral centres with established services. Waterford doesn’t have them.
My point wasn’t a dig at Waterford, it was a general dig at all hospitals – if HIQA states that hospitals are unsafe due to overworked doctors you can expect hospitals all over the place to be closed and downgraded, redirecting services to full referral centres, like SVUH, MUH, Beaumont, SJUH, GUH, CUH, LUH, GUH…
Exactly. The vast majority of protestors would have been from Waterford. Bet you if did a straw poll up in Kilkenny city or Carlow yesterday most people wouldn’t have even known it was on or felt strongly enough to attend.There’s no strong feeling that this will greatly affect anyones lives outside of Waterford and immediate surrounds. Joe Harbinson is right. You can’t force the hospitals to refer to WRH just because it’s in the SE region.
What’s up with the picture? Was someone trying to photoshop themselves tall and thin and the whole city got styled that way?
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