Spacewalkers begin "open heart surgery" to repair costly cosmic ray detector

Two astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station Friday for the first of four spacewalks to repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector, breezing through difficult work to prep the device for invasive surgery to splice in new coolant pumps and extend the instrument's life probing the composition of the universe. "We're going to perform what could be considered open heart surgery on this amazing experiment," said Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, the current space station commander. More

(Source: CBS News - Nov 16)