14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with NASA have decided to postpone the launch of a private resupply mission to the International Space Station, which was scheduled to occur tomorrow. The delay is caused by the need to conduct a series of three spacewalks aboard the orbital lab, to fix an issue that developed last week.
An Antares rocket was supposed to take a Cygnus resupply capsule into low-Earth orbit on December 19. Both spacecraft were developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation, and scheduled to takeoff from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, on Wallops Island, Virginia.
Instead of preparing to receive Cygnus, members of Expedition 38 aboard the ISS will start to get ready for a series of three spacewalks, meant to address a faulty pump module inside the station's Cooling Loop A. A similar error in 2010 required a series of three spacewalks to address as well.
NASA mission controllers say that astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins are currently scheduled to go outside the ISS on December 21, 23 and 25, and replace the faulty item with a replacement part stored in a special container outside the station. NASA TV will be broadcasting the event live.