CNN
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Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has canceled a planned spacewalk after detecting a coolant leak coming from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which is currently docked at the International Space Station.
Speaking late Wednesday night on a NASA telecast, NASA’s Rob Navias called it a “fairly important” leak. Live images during the broadcast showed liquid pouring from the Soyuz spacecraft. Navias said the leak was first noticed around 7:45 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The Soyuz spacecraft docked at the Russian part of the space station. The Soyuz’s external coolant cooling loop is the suspected source of the leak, according to Modernization From NASA on Thursday afternoon.
Russia’s Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a Russian-language statement released Thursday morning on Twitter that the crew is fine and all systems of the space station and ship are operating normally. (CNN translated the statement). Navias also said that the astronauts inside the station were “never in danger.”
“The crew reported that the alarm of the ship’s diagnostic system went off, indicating a decrease in pressure in the cooling system,” according to Roscosmos. “A visual inspection confirmed the leak, after which it was decided to interrupt the planned extravehicular activities of the Russian ISS crew members Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin.”
According to Roscosmos, Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, using the camera on the Russian Nuka module of the space station, “photographed and photographed the outer surface of the ship.” “The data has been transmitted to Earth, and specialists have already begun to study the images.”
Navias said Russian managers looked at the data and consulted “NASA managers and engineers” and outside experts.
NASA said more information will be collected about the leak.
“Plans are currently underway to conduct additional inspection of the Soyuz exterior using the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm,” according to the statement. NASA update.
The Soyuz MS-22 vehicle delivered NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and the two Russian cosmonauts to the space station on September 21 and is scheduled to return them to Earth in late March.
NASA’s spacewalk to install a solar array outside the space station Monday remains on the schedule for astronauts Rubio and Josh Cassada. Meanwhile, Russia’s spacewalk scheduled for December 21 has been postponed indefinitely.
