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Sunita, Lopez venture out for another spacewalk

Sunita and Lopez donned their spacesuits once again on Sunday for their second of three planned spacewalks in nine days.

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HOUSTON: Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams and Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria donned their spacesuits once again on Sunday for their second of three planned spacewalks in nine days, for the completion of an ISS cooling system overhaul that began during a nearly eight-hour excursion on Wednesday.

They have a long Super Bowl on Sunday ahead as they prepare to venture outside the orbital laboratory for their second spacewalk in less than a week. For Sunday's space marathon, the cooling system work is the primary activity of the two spacewalkers, who stepped out of the hatch at 8:38 AM EST (1907 IST). The walk is expected to last for 6.5 hours.

More than two hours into today's spacewalk, International Space Station (ISS) spacewalkers, clad in bulky NASA spacesuits, spotted a tiny leak of toxic ammonia coolant in the form of pinpoint-like flakes.

"They're tiny, little, tiny flakes," Lopez-Alegria said, adding that the bits of frozen ammonia were nowhere near the size of flakes seen during a January 31 spacewalk that prompted minor clean up activities. "They look like pinpoints."

The tiny leak came as the Expedition 14 spacewalkers finished up one of four cooling line reconnections during today's spacewalk. The cooling system work is the primary activity of the spacewalk.

Flight controllers at NASA's Mission Control in Houston gave Lopez-Alegria and Williams a go ahead to continue with their cooling system task and to remain vigilant and alert for any signs of additional ammonia leaks.

The third spacewalk, set for Thursday, would mark the first time three spacewalkers have conducted such a mission in a short time at the space station without a space shuttle docked to it.

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