NASA hopes to finish repairs with spacewalk
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The Christmas Eve spacewalk planned by NASA at the International Space Station should wrap up repair work on a faulty cooling line.
Mission Control said Monday that unless something goes awry, two astronauts ought to finish installing a new ammonia pump today, during this second spacewalk. NASA originally thought three spacewalks might be needed.
Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins removed the faulty pump Saturday. Everything went so well, they jumped ahead in their effort to fix the external cooling line that shut down Dec. 11.
A bad valve in the pump caused the breakdown, prompting the urgent series of spacewalk repairs.
Foreigners trying to flee South Sudan fighting
NAIROBI, Kenya – British, Canadian and Kenyan citizens are among 3,000 foreigners trapped in a South Sudan city experiencing bouts of heavy machine gun fire, one of the most violent areas of a weeklong conflict that has likely killed more than 1,000 people, a top U.N. official said Monday.
Australians, Ugandans and Ethiopians are also among 17,000 people seeking protection at a U.N. base in Bor, a city that could see increased violence in coming days, said Toby Lanzer, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator.
The death toll from a week of violence in South Sudan has likely surpassed 1,000 people, though there are no firm numbers available, he said. The number of internal refugees is probably more than 100,000, said Lanzer, who is seeking urgent financial assistance from the U.S., Britain and other European countries.
“I know there are many thousands of people seeking protection in churches,” Lanzer said. “I know that we have our own staff that have literally walked into the bush and are communicating from there. That’s where they say they are safest.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for more peacekeepers Monday.
Associated Press
