Three Astronauts May Be Stranded on the ISS After Disturbing Soyuz Coolant Leak

A Russian spacewalk was referred to as off on Wednesday after a Soyuz spacecraft hooked up to the International Space Station (ISS) began leaking coolant in low Earth orbit. For one NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts on board, that might imply their trip again to Earth is immediately gone.

The crew on board the ISS weren’t harmed, however the Soyuz spacecraft’s “external casing” on the service module seems to have sustained harm, ensuing within the leak, Russian state-run media TASS reported based mostly on a press release from Russia’s area company Roscosmos. A “visual inspection confirmed the leaking,” forcing Roscosmos to postpone the spacewalk, in line with the assertion. The explanation for the harm to the Soyuz service module stays unknown.

On Wednesday, Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin had donned their spacesuits and ready to exit the area station for a spacewalk that was scheduled to start at 9:20 p.m. ET. However, about two hours earlier than, floor groups seen “significant leaking of an unknown substance” from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, NASA wrote in a blogpost. NASA’s livestream of the spacewalk confirmed an upsetting fountain of particles bursting out from the spacecraft and into area, with the stream remaining seen for greater than three hours.

The ISS crew later reported a Soyuz sensor studying that indicated a drop in strain of the spacecraft’s cooling system. Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina used a robotic arm outdoors the area station to get a more in-depth have a look at the coolant leak and despatched images of the spacecraft to floor groups for additional evaluation.

The ISS crew had been by no means in any hazard, however it’s not but clear if the stricken spacecraft will now be capable to carry its related astronauts again house. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin launched on board the Soyuz spacecraft in September and are on account of return to Earth within the spring of subsequent yr.

The Soyuz MS-22 would possibly nonetheless work as a return automobile, however ought to Roscosmos and NASA deem it to be unusable, Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin would primarily be stranded aboard the ISS till a alternative automobile is flown to the orbiting lab. Easier stated than accomplished, as SpaceInformation reports:

Roscosmos might launch the following Soyuz to the station with none crew on board as a alternative, but it surely’s unsure when the spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23, may very well be ready for launch, and doing so would have an effect on future crew rotations. Soyuz MS-23 is at present scheduled to launch to the station in March 2023 with two Roscosmos cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut.

Rubio was the primary NASA astronaut to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket since April 2021, the results of a current seat-swap settlement. The association stipulated {that a} U.S. astronaut would trip aboard a Soyuz capsule in change for a Russian cosmonaut strapping right into a Crew Dragon for the very first time.

NASA and Roscosmos are working collectively to find out the following plan of action following their evaluation, NASA wrote within the weblog submit. The pair have had some rigidity recently, a results of Roscosmos retaliating towards Western sanctions imposed towards Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine. The seat-swap settlement was a uncommon glimpse of cooperation, however now that seat seems to have been compromised.

More: Russian Cosmonaut Forced to Abandon Spacewalk Due to Spacesuit Power Malfunction