Astronauts complete rare Christmas Eve spacewalk

In this Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013 photo provided by NASA and tweeted Sunday, Dec. 22, by NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, Hopkins work to repair an external cooling line on the International Space Station on a spacewalk 260 miles above Earth. The external cooling line — one of two — shut down Dec. 11. The six-man crew had to turn off all nonessential equipment, including experiments.
In this Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013 photo provided by NASA and tweeted Sunday, Dec. 22, by NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, Hopkins work to repair an external cooling line on the International Space Station on a spacewalk 260 miles above Earth. The external cooling line — one of two — shut down Dec. 11. The six-man crew had to turn off all nonessential equipment, including experiments.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It's a wrap for NASA's Christmas Eve spacewalk.

Two astronauts are safely back inside the International Space Station after replacing a pump in a crippled cooling line on Tuesday. Preliminary testing shows the new pump to be working well. NASA expects to have the station's cooling system restored by this weekend, with all equipment running again.

Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins braved a mini-blizzard of noxious ammonia as they hooked up the new pump. But in the end, they triumphed in their second spacewalk in four days.

It was only the second Christmas Eve spacewalk ever. Mission Control says it's the best Christmas ever.

Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more details.

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