The Soyuz Spacecraft on the International Space Station: Status and Prospects for a Space Walk by Two Russian Cosmonauts

A planned spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts was aborted after ground teams noticed a leak from a ship docked in the International Space Station.

The three astronauts currently stationed at the International Space Station will be flown back to Earth by the replacement craft, SoyuzMS-23. The vehicle originally assigned to the mission, Soyuz MS-22, was found in December to be leaking coolant.

Ground teams at NASA in Houston and at Roscosmos in Moscow are evaluating the potential impacts on the integrity of the Soyuz spacecraft, which is also responsible for bringing them home. The trio is planning on returning in a capsule in late March.

NASA chief flight director Emily Nelson said that the best plan of action tonight was to focus all of our attention on the situation with the spaceship and then regroup tomorrow.

Russian mission controllers told the crew on the space station that they should not open some window shutters because of a suspected coolant leak, and asked them to take a picture of the leak at the best possible resolution. Anna was attached to the station and used a robotic arm to look at her craft.

Four others are currently on the station: NASA’s Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan’s Koichi Wakata, and Russia’s Anna Kikina. On Oct. 5, those four were in the Dragon capsule. That capsule is only capable of transporting up to four crewmembers back home.

The Discovery of a Coolant Leak in a Space Station Transporting Experiment, with a Mission to Rescuing the Unseen Progress 82

A second vehicle that was supposed to transport astronauts after the first one was deemed too unsafe was delayed after a leak was discovered on Saturday.

The replace capsule was supposed to be launched this month and be used to return cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dimitry Petelin and NASA’s FrankRubio.

“The reason for the loss of coolant in the Progress 82 spacecraft is being investigated,” NASA said in a Saturday statement on its site. The temperatures and pressures at the station are all normal, with the hatch between the Progress 82 and the station open. The crew, which was informed of the cooling loop leak, is in no danger and continuing with normal space station operations.”

Roscosmos also shared new images of the MS-22 vehicle, which it said was proof that the spacecraft sustained external damage that caused the coolant leak.