NASA flight director discusses curtailed spacewalk

A nest of genetically-engineered mice, a research study to observe the behavior of fires in space, and an experiment that could lead to brewing beer in microgravity are among more than 5,700 pounds of cargo inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule awaiting launch from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station Thursday.

A recap of the successful start to Orbital ATK’s OA-7 resupply mission to the International Space Station is given in this post-launch news conference held at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center following the Atlas 5 rocket’s delivery of the Cygnus cargo ship into space.

After prepping their patient — a $2 billion cosmic ray detector — during two earlier spacewalks, two space station astronauts ventured back outside for a third outing Monday to carry out what amounted to transplant surgery, installing replacement coolant pumps in a bid to revive the costly instrument and extend its life.