Russian spacecraft leaks coolant, station crew reported safe

An uncrewed Russian provide ship docked on the Worldwide Area Station has leaked coolant, the Russian space company and NASA reported Saturday, saying the incident does not pose any hazard to the station’s crew.

Roscosmos mentioned the hatch between the station and the Progress MS-21 had been locked so the incident did not have an effect on the orbiting outpost.

“The temperature and strain on board the station are inside norms and there’s no hazard to well being and security of the crew,” it mentioned in an announcement.

The preliminary assertion from Roscosmos left it unclear whether or not your entire cargo ship or simply a few of its methods misplaced strain, however Sergei Krikalev, head of Roscosmos’ crewed packages, later clarified that there was depressurization of the craft’s coolant loop.

NASA mentioned its specialists are helping their Russian counterparts within the troubleshooting of the coolant leak.

“Officers are monitoring all Worldwide Area Station methods and should not monitoring some other points,” NASA mentioned. “The crew, which was knowledgeable of the cooling loop leak, is in no hazard and persevering with with regular space station operations.”

The depressurization of the cargo craft’s coolant loop follows the same incident in December with the Soyuz crew capsule, which Russian space officers mentioned had been brought on by a tiny meteoroid that left a small gap within the exterior radiator and despatched coolant spewing into space.

Roscosmos has launched a probe right into a doable reason behind the cooling loop leak, and Krikalev mentioned that specialists will intently have a look at supplies and applied sciences utilized in spacecraft manufacturing as a part of the probe.

“We have to conduct a radical evaluation to make it possible for it would not have an effect on comparable parts that will likely be used sooner or later,” Krikalev mentioned. “That is crucial activity.”

Roscosmos famous that earlier than the leak the cargo ship had already been loaded with waste previous to its scheduled disposal. The craft is ready to be undocked from the station and deorbit to burn within the ambiance on Feb. 18.

The announcement got here shortly after a brand new Russian cargo ship docked easily on the station on Saturday. The Progress MS-22 delivered nearly three tons of meals, water and gasoline together with scientific tools for the crew.

Roscosmos mentioned that the incident did not have an effect on the docking of the brand new cargo ship and “can have no influence on the longer term station program.”

Russian Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio have been supposed to make use of the Soyuz crew capsule to return to Earth in March, however Russian space officers determined that greater temperatures ensuing from the coolant leak may make it harmful to make use of.

They determined to launch a brand new Soyuz capsule on Feb. 20 so the crew have a lifeboat within the occasion of an emergency. However since it can journey in automated mode to expedite the launch, a substitute crew will now have to attend till late summer season or fall when one other capsule is prepared. It implies that Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio should keep a number of additional months on the station, presumably pushing their mission to shut to a 12 months.

NASA took half in all of the discussions and agreed with the plan.

In addition to Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, the space station is dwelling to NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada; Russian Anna Kikina; and Japan’s Koichi Wakata. The 4 rode up on a SpaceX capsule final October.

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