Astronauts have trouble walking in the universe

The International Space Station (ISS) 's arm was suddenly broken while two American astronauts walked out of space yesterday, causing one to get stuck for nearly 20 minutes.

An astronaut made a walk outside ISS on February 28.Photo: Article

The AP reported that two astronauts Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew were out of ISS at 22:46 in Vietnam time to carry out maintenance work. They checked the technical problems before installing the permanent multipurpose compartment (Permanent Multipurpose Module). With the ability to accommodate both people and goods, the permanent multi-purpose compartment helps astronauts on ISS have more space for living and working. The two astronauts also attached a spare wire between the Unity compartment and the Tranquility compartment, placed a stand under the camera, and installed a 363 kg urine tank.

The machine arm was broken after two astronauts Bowen and Drew walked out into space about two hours. Kyle Herring, spokesman for the US Aerospace Agency (NASA), said the incident caused two astronauts to stop working for 15 to 20 minutes. Bowen was forced to lie on the machine arm to wait for ISS's astronauts to fix the problem.

After the machine arm operated, Drew and Bowen continued to work for about 4 hours. The next walk will be done tomorrow.

Bowen and Drew were two of the six astronauts flying with Space Shuttle Discovery on ISS on February 26. The ship was launched on February 24 to make the last flight. After returning to Earth, Discovery will become the first spaceship in the US 'shuttle' fleet. The other two shuttles are Endeavor and Atlantis.