Astronauts go on spacewalk to repair computer of ISS' U.S. segment
MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax) - A number of International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers have gone on an unscheduled spacewalk, a source in the Russian rocket and space industry told Interfax.
"The astronauts started a spacewalk to repair an external computer mounted on the U.S. segment at 2:20 p.m. Moscow time, 40 minutes earlier than planned," the source said.
One of the two computers mounted on the S0 truss of the multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM) data relay box of the ISS U.S. segment went out of order on Saturday, and the schedule of extravehicular works had to be changed. The launch of 20-25 micro-satellites with the use of a Japanese robotic arm and the U.S. launch system due on May 23-25 was delayed.
Presumably, the modernized computer installed during a spacewalk on March 30 malfunctioned.