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Science Watch discarded NASA tank zip across your night sky
Science Watch discarded NASA tank zip across your night sky | Watch discarded NASA tank zip across your night sky |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Thursday, 24 July 2008 | |
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On July 23, 2007, the Early Ammonia Servicer, a nitrogen gas reservoir, was ejected from the P6 truss of the International Space Station (ISS) during a spacewalk by ISS Expedition 15 crewmember and NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson. An image of the EAS floating away from the International Space Station, after Anderson pushed it out, is shown at the NASA website: “ISS015-E-18967 (23 July 2007)” The 1,400 pound (635-kilogram) refrigerator-sized container was pushed gently away from the Space Station at a rate of about one mile per hour (1.6 kilometer per hour). The Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS), which was installed on the P6 truss in August 2001 by the STS-105 crew, consisted of two nitrogen tanks that provided (if necessary) compressed gaseous nitrogen to pressurize the ammonia tank. If an ammonia leak had occurred to the cooling system of the Space Station, the EAS would have been used as a backup to maintain the pressurized integrity of the ISS thermal control subsystems. However, a permanent cooling system for the Space Station was installed in December 2006, and the EAS was not longer needed. Normally, the EAS, once empty, would have been returned to Earth so it could be recycled for later use on the ISS. However, in this particular instance, a conflict arose with the EAS and it was decided that it was better to eject the EAS from the Space Station, rather than return it to Earth. Find out when you can see the EAS fly across your local night sky. Please read on. |
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