A long overdue maintenance of the International Space Station was finally performed by crewmembers who completed the ISS' first routine preparations during a spacewalk after more than a year.

The last scheduled spacewalk was done in July 2013. After that, regular spacewalks were prohibited because of an incident where an astronaut's helmet became flooded with water.

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This Tuesday's spacewalk was headed by American Reid Wiseman and German Alexander Gerst, as they repaired and restored a broken pump.

The cooling pump located on the ISS' exterior is actually large, weighing around 780 pounds when it was transferred to a temporary location after malfunctioning last December. The astronauts have moved to pump back to its original location. 

The next routine spacewalk is scheduled on October 15 to oversee tasks that are shorlisted regarding the pump incident last July 2013.

The next spacewalk will be performed by astronaut Barry Wilmore who will be guided by Wiseman. The two astronauts will replace some expired electronics on the ISS. 

According to Kenny Todd, ISS integration operations manager, extra vehicular activity (EVA) that should already address some much need maintenance on the ISS have been long overdue. The ISS team is ready to transform the space station with more EVAs and intensive preparation that will involve moving modules.

Todd also relates that with the additional EVAs, the ISS can further prepare to later have the capability to support other commercial space flight spacecraft in the future that will arrive at the station.

Their current space station preparation procedures include the installation of a new docking adapter system which will proceed during the next seven months on board the ISS.

TagsAstronauts Complete Spacewalk Maintenance on ISS, NASA, ISS, astonauts spacewalk, spacewalk ISS