Micrometeorite may have caused leak in Russian spacecraft docked to the ISS

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The space agencies of Russia and the United States evaluated, this Thursday (15), the severity of an impressive leak in the cooling system of a Russian spacecraft docked at the International Space Station (ISS), which could have caused by the impact of a micrometeorite.

The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft has been docked with the ISS since it carried Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin in September, as well as American astronaut Frank Rubio.

On Wednesday (14), the two Russians were preparing for a spacewalk when the alarm system went off, which indicates a drop in pressure in the spacecraft’s cooling system, according to a statement from the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

In the images released by NASA, it is possible to clearly see a jet of white particles escaping into space, which would be the coolant.

“The cause of the leak could be a micrometeorite,” said Sergei Krikalev, director of human spaceflight at Roscosmos, according to a note released by Russian news agency Tass.

The liquid was leaking from the rear of the spacecraft, docked with the Russian segment of the ISS. The leak stopped on its own shortly afterwards.

The spacewalk was canceled “to allow time to assess fluid and potential impacts on the integrity of the Soyuz spacecraft,” NASA said in a statement on Thursday.

“Crew members aboard the Space Station are safe and in no danger during the leak,” he added.

Alternative solutions?

The two Russian cosmonauts and the American astronaut arrived at the ISS on September 21 aboard a Russian rocket launched from Kazakhstan.

According to the schedule, they should use that same ship to return to Earth after six months, at the end of their mission, in March 2023. However, if the ship is damaged, the possible backup solutions, which were not detailed officially, could include shipping a new vehicle.

Four other people are currently on board the ISS: the Russian Anna Kikina, the Americans Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada and the Japanese Koichi Wakata.

The four are part of the Crew-5 crew, which arrived at the ISS in October, aboard a spacecraft from the private company SpaceX, whose services are contracted by NASA.

The exchange for a Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard an American spacecraft and vice versa was planned for a long time and came to fruition despite tensions between the two countries.

The ISS is one of the few fields of ongoing cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, launched in February, and the Western response with the imposition of economic sanctions.

The orbital platform was launched in 1998, at a time of cooperation between the United States and Russia, after the space race in which the two were involved during the Cold War years.

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