Oct 9 (Reuters/GNA) – Russia’s space agency said on Monday that its multipurpose Nauka module attached to the International Space Station suffered a leak of a backup cooling system used to regulate onboard temperatures for astronauts.
The crew and the station “are not in danger” as astronauts assess the leak, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said in a statement posted on Telegram.
It’s the latest such leak the Russians have had to deal with in space recently, following one that sprang on a Soyuz crew capsule late last year, forcing the spacecraft’s replacement and a delayed trip home for its crew. A Russian Progress cargo spacecraft leaked coolant months later.
NASA, which manages the ISS with Russia, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Around 1 p.m. ET (1700 GMT), an official at NASA’s mission control center in Houston instructed one of station’s U.S. astronauts to go to the cupola, a dome-like set of windows overlooking space, to look for what ground teams had detected as “flakes” outside the station, according to mission control audio.
“There’s a leak coming from the radiator on MLM,” replied NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, referring to the Nauka module on the station’s Russian segment.
Coolant that leaked from Russia’s Soyuz-22 capsule in December appeared on live video feeds as flaky, snow-like particles spewing into space from the craft’s radiator. A NASA engineering team believes a piece of space debris or a tiny meteorite was to blame, following a monthslong investigation with the Russians.
GNA/Credit: Reuters