Russia’s space agency Roscosmos says the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) is not in danger despite a new coolant leak in its module, the third such incident in less than a year.
The Nauka module of the Russian segment of the ISS suffered a coolant leak from the external (emergency) cooling circuit delivered to the station in 2012, Roscosmos reported on Telegram.
According to the Russian agency, there is no danger to the crew and the station. The module’s main thermal control circuit is functioning normally and providing comfortable conditions in the module’s living area, it said.
There are currently seven people on board the station: three Russians, two Americans, a Dane and a Japanese.
The exchange with the SSI is partly broadcast live on the Internet; And at the end of the day, a control center employee on Earth asked part of the crew to go to the dome, an observation dome that allows astronauts to see outside.
“We’re seeing flakes outside,” he told them, urging them to look to confirm the place of origin.
There was a leak in the radiator of the MLM (Multipurpose Laboratory Module, the other name for the Nauka segment), astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli later said.
The crew on board was never in danger, NASA later said in a statement, confirming that the leak did indeed come from the emergency heater. The primary cooling circuit is functioning, with no impact on crew or station operations, the US space agency added.
There have been several leak incidents recently.
In December, the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked with the ISS suffered a coolant leak due to the impact of a micrometeorite, according to Moscow, which decided to send the MS-22 spacecraft as a replacement. 23.
This incident forced two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut to stay aboard the ISS longer than planned. At the end of September they were finally able to return safely to Earth.
A similar leak to the December incident also affected another Russian spacecraft in mid-February, the cargo ship Progress MS-21, which was docked at the station but was not intended to carry passengers.
There is a commonality among three coolant leaks, commented Jonathan McDowell, astronomer and space analyst, for AFP in Washington. One is nothing, two is a coincidence, three is something systemic.
This underscores the reduced reliability of Russian space systems, he added. Maybe it’s a cooling system subcontractor that needs to get its act together, or maybe it reflects something more systemic about the Russian program’s quality controls.
Russia’s space sector, historically the country’s pride, has been mired in trouble for years, marked by a lack of funding, failures and corruption scandals.
The ISS is one of the rare areas of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine and the subsequent international sanctions.