Article Posted on : - Aug 03, 2010

A file photo.

WASHINGTON (AFP): Crew members on the International Space Station will make the first of two spacewalks this week to remove and replace a pump module on a cooling system that dramatically failed last week, NASA officials have said.

The first spacewalk will begin at around 1100 GMT (1630IST) on Thursday with a second planned for no earlier than Sunday, NASA said.

"It's going to require two spacewalks to complete the task and bring loop A back online with its full cooling capability of the station's systems," mission control in Houston, Texas, said during a daily video stream of activities on board the space station.

US astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson will conduct the first spacewalk on Thursday.

Astronauts on Earth will hold dry-runs for the spacewalk starting yesterday at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) in Houston, where they will "choreograph and develop time lines" for Thursday's spacewalk.