Posted: Thu, Apr 24, 2014, 7:14 AM ET (1114 GMT)
Two NASA astronauts worked quickly Wednesday to replace a faulty computer on the exterior of the International Space Station on a relatively short spacewalk. Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steven Swanson completed the spacewalk at 11:32 am EDT (1532 GMT), just 1 hour and 36 minutes after it started. The two astronauts experienced few problems with the sole task of the spacewalk, removing a failed Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM) backup computer mounted on the station's S0 truss segment, and installing a replacement MDM. The MDM failed April 11, and station managers decided to have the astronauts perform the spacewalk after a Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived at the station. The spacewalk also took place several hours after a Progress cargo spacecraft undocked from the station; it will redock with the station on Friday in a test of an upgraded rendezvous system.
