Safety precautions for astronauts following ammonia scare

Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (Nasa/AP)

Spacewalking astronauts have been forced to take extra safety precautions after possibly getting toxic ammonia on their suits from the International Space Station’s external cooling system.

Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins had no trouble removing and venting a couple of old jumper cables to remove any ammonia still lingering as part of a number of maintenance tasks they were carrying out on the space station.