The spacewalk took 6 hours and 47 minutes.
Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins easily removed andremoved a couple of old jumper cables to remove the ammonia still in the wires. But a huge amount of ammonia escaped from the first hose - so much that Mission Control feared that some of the frozen white flakes might end up on their suits.
Astronauts were surprised by the amount of ammoniathrown into the vacuum of space, he even checked with the controllers if they saw such an amount. Despite the fact that the flow of ammonia was directed in the other direction, the astronauts worried that some ice crystals could touch their helmets. As a result, the Mission Control Center said they would be "conservative" and require checks.
The first check of the astronauts' suits did notfound nothing superfluous. NASA did not want ammonia to get inside the space station and pollute the cockpit atmosphere. The astronauts used long tools to ventilate the hoses and stay away from the nozzles to reduce the risk of ammonia exposure.
After four hours of the scheduled six o'clockSpacewalkers have already spent enough time in the sunlight to burn off the remnants of ammonia on their spacesuits, and that everything should be fine when they get back inside.
However, shortly thereafter, a non-relatedthis was a problem when cosmonaut Victor Glover complained of eye irritation. He said his right eye was watery, but quickly reassured Mission Control that blinking seemed to help.
After the ammonia hoses wereemptied, the astronauts moved one of them to a more central location next to the hatch, in case it is needed, at the opposite end of the station. Ammonia bridges were added many years ago after a leak in the cooling system.
The hose should have been completed duringspacewalk time a week ago, but was delayed along with other odd jobs when power upgrades took longer than expected.
Other Saturday works included:replacing the antenna for the cameras on the helmet, re-routing the Ethernet cables, tightening the connections on the European experimental platform, and installing a metal ring on the thermal manhole cover.
Saturday's spacewalk began almostan hour later than planned. Before leaving, the astronauts had to replace the communication caps under the helmets in order to hear. It was the sixth spacewalk and, with the exception of an emergency, the last for this US-Russian-Japanese crew of seven. All exits except one were led by NASA.
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