A coolant leak from a Russian space capsule attached to the International Space Station was likely caused by a micrometeorite strike, a Russian space official said Thursday.
The Russian space corporation Roscosmos and NASA have said the incident posed no danger to the station’s crew.
Sergei Krikalev, a veteran cosmonaut who serves as director of manned spaceflight programs at Roscosmos, said the coolant leak from the Soyuz MS-22 capsule could have been caused by a meteorite hitting one of its radiators.
Krikalev said in a statement that the malfunction could affect the performance of the capsule’s cooling system and the temperature in the capsule’s equipment section, but does not endanger the crew.
The coolant leak caused a pair of Russian cosmonauts to abort a planned spacewalk earlier in the day.
Krikalev said Russian flight controllers were still assessing the situation and monitoring temperature gauges on the Soyuz, but stressed that “there have been no other changes in the parameters of the Soyuz craft and the station, so there is no threat to the crew.”
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Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield reacts to news of the unexplained leak from the docked Soyuz spacecraft, which led to the cancellation of a routine spacewalk by the Russian ISS.
Krikalev added, however, that future operations of the station will depend on the assessment of the condition of the capsule. “Decisions on the future flight program will be made on the basis of this analysis,” he said.
“NASA and Roscosmos will continue to work together to determine the next course of action following the ongoing analysis,” NASA said. “Crew members aboard the space station are safe and were not harmed during the leak.”
Just as Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin were about to venture outside the station on a planned spacewalk earlier Thursday, ground specialists saw a flow of fluids and particles in live video from space, along with a pressure drop in the instruments, emanating from the Soyuz capsule.
Prokopyev, Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio used the capsule to reach the International Space Station in September, and it serves as a lifeboat for the crew.
Four other crew members are also currently at the space outpost: NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos’ Anna Kikina.