Washington, Nov 7 (EFE).– Two astronauts of the U.S. space agency NASA successfully completed almost eight hours of “high-flying plumbing” while on a spacewalk to make repairs on the International Space Station, or ISS.

NASA officials reported Friday that ISS commander Scott Kelly and colleague Kjell Lindgren worked exactly seven hours and 48 minutes outside the space station doing vital maintenance work they referred to as “high-flying plumbing.”

The astronauts went outside the station at 7:10 a.m. EST (1215 GMT) and planned to finish the job six and a half hours later, though they were prepared to stay longer if necessary.

This was the second spacewalk for Kelly and Lindgren in less than two weeks, after making improvements on the station and carrying out long-term maintenance tasks on Oct. 28.

Today’s job consisted of reconfiguring the space station’s cooling system following repairs made to fix an ammonia leak in 2012, NASA said.

NASA allowed visitors to its Web site back on Earth the chance to follow live images of the astronauts, who returned the cooling system to its original configuration from the repairs made in 2012.

Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui helped his colleagues get ready for their spacewalk and then coordinated their activities from inside the station.

This was NASA’s 33rd spacewalk outside the ISS and the 190th in the history of this platform, which last Monday completed its 15th year with continuous human presence aboard.

The ISS is a project that has cost more than $100 billion, in which 15 nations have participated, and which orbits at a speed of over 27,000 kph (16,000 mph) at a distance of 400 kilometers (249 miles) from Earth.

The space station, an assembly of 11 modules plus solar panels and robotic devices, has had residents permanently aboard since the year 2000.

In its decade and a half, the station has received more than 200 astronauts and cosmonauts from 15 countries. EFE