Space station crew fixes generator

updated 12:41 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2006

MOSCOW - The international space station's crew has fixed an oxygen generator that overheated and spilled a toxic irritant last month, Mission Control said Wednesday.

The station's crew — cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and German astronaut Thomas Reiter — have fixed the Elektron oxygen-generator using spare parts delivered last week by the Russian cargo ship Progress, said Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin.

"The crew has replaced several parts of Elektron and put it back to work," Lyndin said. "Elektron has been working smoothly since Tuesday."

The Russian-made Elektron overheated, leaking potassium hydroxide on Sept. 18. While the incident forced the crew to don masks and gloves in the first emergency ever declared aboard the eight-year-old orbiting outpost, Russian and U.S. space officials downplayed it, saying crew members' lives were never in any danger.

Lyndin said that the station had plenty of oxygen canisters, which the crew were using before the Elektron was fixed Tuesday. He said space officials also plan to put a U.S. oxygen-generator in service next year.

NASA This diagram labels the components in the international space station's Elektron oxygen generator.

MORE FROM SPACE

Space Section Front

Rocket launches on space station voyage Cosmic Log: Cassini's closest encounter Space toilet goes on the fritz ... again! NASA to push ahead with Mars Lab launch Space millionaire confident ahead of liftoff Where have all the little Plutos gone? Cosmic Log: The plan to revive Hubble Interactive gallery: 8 great space telescopes High-speed crash makes hot, 'sterile' galaxies Planetarium entangled in politics Space Section Front   Add Space headlines to your news reader: