Epic Spacewalk To Replace Cooling Equipment On ISS Goes Well

By Eyder Peralta

Published December 21, 2013 at 9:23 AM CST

The degraded pump module as seen from the helmet cam of Rick Mastracchio.

Updated 6 p.m. ET

NASA reports that things went well in Saturday's 5-1/2-hour spacewalk, with two American astronauts removing a pump from the International Space Station Saturday in an effort to repair a faulty piece of cooling equipment.

Astronauts Michael Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio completed more of the fixes in less time than had been anticipated.

A second spacewalk is scheduled for Monday. Veteran space reporter William Harwood at CBS News reports: "Given how far ahead of the timeline the crew got, flight controllers are still hopeful the astronauts can complete the pump swap out Monday, avoiding a third spacewalk on Christmas Day."

(Original post below)

We're about half-way through what is expected to be an epic 6 1/2-hour space walk today on the International Space Station.

As NPR's Geoff Brumfel reported, astronauts will brave space to repair a faulty piece of cooling equipment.

It should be routine. It should not resemble the excitement of Gravity. But it is still pretty cool and you can watch it live on NASA TV.