Astronauts Test Repair Goo in Spacewalk

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

This image provided by NASA shows the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator also known as Dextre in the grasp of the station's robotic Canadarm2 in this image photographed by a crewmember on the International Space Station Tuesday March 18, 2008 while Space Shuttle Endeavour is docked with the station. Also pictured are solar array panels. A blue and white Earth provides the backdrop for the scene. Two of the crew members will float outside Thursday night to squirt salmon-colored goo into the crevices of extra space shuttle thermal tiles that were deliberately damaged for the test. (AP Photo/NASA)

(AP) -- Two spacewalking astronauts, armed with a caulk gun and high-tech kind of Silly Putty, floated out the hatch Thursday to test a method for patching shuttle thermal tiles.

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Posted by vlam67 03/21/08 02:52

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I wonder how handy are these space-plumbers? Nobody says. If they are hopeless with a caulk gun fixing gaps in their bathrooms (if they ever did, which i strongly doubt), then they will butcher the job and NASA can write the repair technique off as being too hard to do. After all, there is a reason why plumbers still have their business!