WATCH ABOVE: A computer outage at the International Space Station may require a spacewalk and threatens to push back next week’s launch of a commercial supply ship for NASA.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA has ordered spacewalking repairs for a serious computer outage at the International Space Station.
A backup computer for some robotic systems failed Friday. The main computer is fine and the six-man crew is safe. But the malfunction puts next week’s supply run in jeopardy.
The bad computer, called an MDM or multiplexer-demultiplexer, is among more than a dozen located on the outside of the space station, used to route commands to various systems.
Officials said the failure has had no impact on the scientific and other work being conducted by the astronauts: three Russians, two Americans and one Japanese.
Mission managers agreed Saturday that a spacewalk is needed to replace the bad computer.
NASA says it will decide Sunday whether to delay the delivery mission. No date for the spacewalk has been set yet.
The SpaceX Dragon capsule is loaded with more than 2 tons of space station supplies at Cape Canaveral. The shipment is already a month late.
On Saturday, retired Canadian astronaut and former ISS commander Chris Hadfield acknowledged the situation faced by his peers via Twitter.
Hadfield presided over similar situation last May, when a serious ammonia leak forced crew members to conduct a spacewalk to replace a faulty pump.
The repairs were completed successfully and astronauts didn’t detect signs of ammonia leakage on board the ship.
With files from Global News and The Associated Press’ Marcia Dunn.
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