Space Station Crew Repairs Main Oxygen Generator

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) restored the outpost's balky oxygen generator Tuesday after a series of repair efforts by cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.

Tyurin, a flight engineer with the space station's Expedition 14 crew, worked with Russian mission controllers to bring the orbital laboratory's Elektron oxygen generator back online, NASA spokesperson Lynette Madison told SPACE.com.

"After running without a hitch...the Elektron was deliberately shut off by Russian flight controllers to get additional data on valve and electrical continuity behavior," Madison said, adding that the device--the primary oxygen generator aboard the ISS--is slated for reactivation later today.

Located in the space station's Zvezda service module, the Russian-built Elektron device [image] separates water into its component oxygen and hydrogen via electrolysis. The oxygen supports the station's three-astronaut Expedition 14 crew while the hydrogen is dumped overboard.

But the generator failed in mid-September just after NASA's STS-115 shuttle astronauts undocked from the ISS following their successful construction mission. Overheating and a leak of mildly toxic potassium hydroxide used in the Elektron prompted the failure, as well as a brief emergency for the space station's then-Expedition 13 crew.

At no time were the Expedition 13 astronauts or the current Expedition 14 crew, commanded by veteran spaceflyer Michael Lopez-Alegria with Tyurin and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, in danger of running out of air, NASA officials said.

The space station astronauts relied on oxygen-producing candles and other supplies stored in tanks to maintain their atmosphere.

Tyurin activated Elektron overnight using laptop, Madison said. The oxygen generator operated in backup mode--which it failed to last year--until it was deliberately turned off to gather more data, she added.

The generator is a key piece of hardware, especially during periods of increased activity aboard the ISS such as joint operations during station crew changes and shuttle missions to complete the orbital laboratory. NASA's next ISS-bound shuttle flight, STS-116 aboard Discovery, is slated to launch towards the space station on Dec. 7.

To perform the Elektron repair, Tyurin replaced a series of valves and cables using spare parts that arrived last week aboard the unmanned Russian cargo ship Progress 23. That cargo ship [image] had some initial docking difficulties during its Oct. 26 arrival due to an errant navigation antenna that appeared to not have retracted properly during the orbital rendezvous.

On Monday, NASA officials said that after further study Russian flight controllers concluded that the antenna in fact did not retract properly, but did not prevent the spacecraft's docking or hatch opening and will likely not impact its stay at the ISS.

Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria arrived at the ISS on Sept. 20 with U.S. space tourist Anousheh Ansari, who later returned to Earth with Expedition 13 commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineer Jeffrey Williams. Reiter has served aboard the ISS since July and is scheduled to return to Earth in December with NASA's STS-116 shuttle crew.

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