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The system was supposed to be fixed through the open space a week ago, but work was delayed longer than planned due to wiring work.
The Air Traffic Control Center arranged additional open space for Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins to complete TKS repairs for the astronauts’ return trip this spring. They also worked together in outer space a month and a half ago.
Before leaving TKS, the astronauts had to change the “communication hats” that they used in the helmet to listen well to the messages. “I hear you loud and clear,” Hopkins said, wearing a new “hat.”
Glover and Hopkins, who flew a SpaceX last November, had to connect new cooling system cables. NASA has warned astronauts to be “especially vigilant” and to protect themselves from ammonia. They had to work with long tools.
Other minor work on Saturday included replacing the helmet camera antenna, redesigning the Ethernet cables, reinforcing the connections on a European experimental platform and installing a metal ring on the hatch’s thermal cover. The work in outer space lasted about an hour and a half.
It was the fifth and, absent unforeseen circumstances, the last to go into outer space for this seven-member TKS crew of four Americans, two Russians and one Japanese.