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Peggy Whitson

she blinded me with science

Sunita Williams Helps Fix ISS With Toothbrush, Busts Women’s Spacewalk Record

sunitawilliams_BAMF

There is nothing that isn’t awesome in that headline, fellow people of the future.

This morning’s space news oddity proves that you needn’t know where your towel is at, as long as you can find your toothbrush. According to MSNBC, an astronaut walkabout team consisting of NASA’s Sunita Williams and Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide were recently charged with clearing debris from a faulty bolt housing, one that prevented them from properly installing a main busing switch. The International Space Station is powered by four of these 220 lb switches – also known as MBSUs – which relay solar power from collection arrays around the complex. A failed attempt last week to remove the former MSBU from the slot and install a spare had left two of the Station’s eight panels unable to relay power, a situation that astronaut Jack Fischer, speaking from Mission Control in Houston, compared to, “living on the set of ‘Apollo 13′.”

Sounds dramatic, sure, but remember that swapping out a busing switch for the International Space Station is a little more complicated than popping out of your car to change a tire.

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