Posted May 22, 2017 09:20:57

Photo: NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson (pictured) and Jack Fischer will partner for the spacewalk. (Reuters: NASA)

A pair of astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station for an emergency spacewalk to replace a failed computer, one of two that control major US systems aboard the orbiting outpost, NASA says.

The primary device failed on Saturday, leaving the $100 billion orbiting laboratory to depend on a backup system to route commands to its solar power system, radiators, cooling loops and other equipment.

The station's current five-member crew from the United States, Russia and France were never in any danger, NASA said in a statement.

It's inevitable that mankind will return to the Moon, but the arguments for going there have changed dramatically since the Apollo missions, experts say.

Station commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Jack Fischer, both with NASA, will partner for the spacewalk on Tuesday, which is expected to last two hours, the US space agency said.

Earlier on Sunday, Ms Whitson assembled and tested a spare electronics box to replace the failed device, which had been installed during a spacewalk on March 30, NASA spokesman Dan Huot said.

NASA's last emergency spacewalk took place in December 2015 when two US astronauts left the station to release the brakes on a robot arm's mobile transporter.

The ISS, which is staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts, serves as a research laboratory for biology, life science, materials science and physics experiments, as well as astronomical observations and Earth remote sensing.

The station, owned and operated by 15 nations, flies about 400 kilometres above Earth and orbits the planet about every 90 minutes. It has been continuously staffed since 2000.

Reuters

Topics: spacecraft, space-exploration, astronomy-space, science-and-technology, united-states