High-tech musical chairs as spacewalking astronauts perform pump swap at ISS

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – Spacewalking astronauts carried out a high-flying, high-tech version of musical chairs Wednesday, rearranging pumps outside the International Space Station. Popping out early, NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold quickly swapped the positions of two spare ammonia pumps that are part of the space station's critical cooling system. One pump got too cold because of a power shutdown 17 years ago and is called Frosty; flight controllers plan to test it in the coming days to see if it still works. The other, a failed unit dubbed Leaky, spewed out ammonia five years ago. Frosty took Leaky's spot on a robot-arm mechanism, while Leaky was moved to a long-term storage platform. Ammonia coolant is toxic, and Mission Control repeatedly warned the spacewalkers to be careful of any leaks.