CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Spacewalking astronauts completed almost all the greasy repairs on a gummed-up joint at the international space station Saturday, leaving just a few chores for another day.
But as spacewalk No. 3 was getting underway, a new recycling system for converting urine into drinking water broke down again.
It was the third day in a row that the urine processor inexplicably shut down, and it appeared to be the same kind of sluggish motor trouble seen before. Engineers on the ground scrambled to figure out what might be wrong.
The $154 million water recycling system, delivered a week ago by space shuttle Endeavour, is essential for allowing more astronauts to live on the space station next year.
The spacewalk Saturday by Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Stephen Bowen focused entirely on the clogged solar wing-rotating joint.
The joint stopped working properly more than a year ago, after it jammed with metal grit from grinding parts, and cannot keep the solar wings on the right side of the station pointed toward the sun.
Stefanyshyn-Piper, who lost a $100,000 tool kit during Tuesday’s spacewalk, had to share grease guns with Bowen 225 miles up. They carefully guarded all their tethers so nothing would get loose.
“OK. Tether, tether, tether,” Stefanyshyn-Piper counted before moving on to another task. “Three tethers, and they’re all closed.”
