The Russian space agency Roscosmos has recently announced that an uncontrolled coolant leak has occurred on a Soyuz spacecraft that is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) that has led to the damage of the crew capsule. Due to the coolant leak in low Earth orbit, the Russian spacewalk has been called off. The crew capsule has been carrying one NASA astronaut and two Russian astronauts on board. The sudden coolant seepage has abolished astronauts’ plan to ride back to earth.
As per the reports, the astronauts on board are safe but the external casting of the service module of the Soyuz spacecraft seems to have suffered damage that has led to the coolant leak. The officials from the Russian space agency Roscosmos have said that they have confirmed the leaking via a visual inspection. However, the actual cause of the damage to the service module of the Soyuz spacecraft is still unclear.
On a fateful day, two astronauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin planned to exit the space station for a spacewalk that was supposed to start at 9:20 p.m. ET. Nevertheless, the ground team saw a major Seepage of an unknown matter originating from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft.
The officials from NASA as well stated that a shocking cascade of particles erupting from the Soyuz spacecraft and into space was seen in NASA’s livestream as well. The stream of erupting particles was evident for more than three hours. Later, the ISS crew recorded the Soyuz sensor reading that showed a reduction in pressure in the cooling system of the spacecraft. Russian astronaut Anna Kikina took a closer look at the leakage with the help of a robotic arm outside the space station. She sent the pictures of the spacecraft to the ground team for further investigation.
Nasa astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin who were launched onboard the Soyuz spacecraft in September are supposed to ride back to earth in the Spring of the year 2023. However, now it is not clear whether the affected spacecraft will be able to ride these astronauts back to earth. If NASA and Roscosmos deem the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft to be inoperative, all three astronauts will be stuck aboard the International Space Station (ISS) until an auxiliary vehicle is sent to the orbiting lab for their safe return home.
Frank Rubio is the first NASA cosmonaut who has flown aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft since April 2021, which is an outcome of a recent seat-swap contract between the United States and Russia that has been signed in July 2022. The seat-swap deal requires that a U.S. astronaut will be riding aboard a Soyuz spacecraft capsule in exchange for a Russian astronaut joining a Crew Dragon for the first time.
The officials from NASA have said that Roscosmos and NASA have joined hands to work together to find out the next course of action after they analyze the whole issue. The two space agencies have developed some tension lately after Roscosmos has reacted against western sanctions that have been levied against Russia due to the incursion of Ukraine. However, many experts see the seat-swap contract between the two nations as a rare sign of cooperation, but now that the seat-swap contract as well seems to have been jeopardized.
However, neither of the space agencies has made it clear whether the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft will be used to ride these three astronauts back to earth after the major loss of coolant material. It is also unclear if the International Space Station (ISS) as a whole or the Cygnus Cargo spacecraft that is attached to the ISS near the Soyuz MS-22 has suffered any damage due to the coolant leak or not. NASA and Roscosmos have still not confirmed that which specific coolant has dripped from the Soyuz spacecraft.
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