Two spacewalking astronauts successfully replaced a vital power unit on the International Space Station today (Sept. 5), defeating a stubborn bolt that originally delayed the fix with the help of some improvised tools made of spare parts and a toothbrush.
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide performed today’s spacewalk repair. The fix-it job in space was actually an extra spacewalk tacked on to their mission after the stuck space station bolt prevented the astronauts from properly installing the power unit on the outpost’s backbone-like truss last week on Aug. 30.