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One of two ammonia-fed cooling loops on the International Space Station shut down at 7 p.m. CDT on Saturday after a power spike was detected on the loop's Pump Module. The Pump Module, which enables ammonia to flow through the loops, remains down, and with the loss of the cooling loop, several systems were forced to shut down, including two of the station's four Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs), one of two redundant strings of S-band communication, one of two redundant strings of the station's Global Positioning System (GPS), several DC to DC current converters in Tranquility Node 3 and a set of components that route commands to station equipment. When the cooling loop went down, the crew was awakened by caution and warning alarms and began powering down equipment to balance the cooling loads that were transferred to Cooling Loop B, which is active and in good condition. Tracy Caldwell Dyson, joined first by Doug Wheelock and later by Shannon Walker, remained awake into the early hours on Sunday to work troubleshooting procedures while the rest of the crew slept. The crew is in no danger, but will need to work additional troubleshooting on Sunday to keep the station in a stable configuration, including the installation of a jumper cable to maintain proper cooling to the Zarya functional cargo block (FGB). The station is equipped with at least two spare pump modules that are housed on external platforms on the station's truss should a replacement of the Loop A Pump Module be required.
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