Spacewalking astronauts have successfully replaced a dead computer outside the International Space Station. The American astronauts have also successfully got their orbiting home back up to full strength. The new one tested fine.
Rick Mastracchio and Steven Swanson were rushed for the urgent repair job on the space station.
“Excellent work, gentlemen,” Mission Control radioed soon after the astronauts swapped out the computers within an hour.
NASA is clueless about the reason behind the failure of the original computer. Therefore, the Mission Control has asked the astronauts to monitor the whole system to find out for any damage that might explain the breakdown.
The removed computer at the space station has failed working nearly two weeks ago. However, the main computer has been in a good working condition but the US space agency was of the opinion of installing a fresh spare as soon as possible.
This was the first failure of so-called MDMs, or multiplexer-demultiplexers, in and outside the space station.
The space station is carrying six astronauts: two Americans, three Russians and one Japanese.