Russian spacecraft leaks coolant, station crew reported safe

An unmanned Russian supply ship docked at the International Space Station has leaked coolant, the Russian Space Agency and NASA reported on Saturday, saying the incident posed no danger to the station’s crew.

Roscosmos said the hatch between the station and the Progress MS-21 was sealed so the incident would not affect the encircling outpost.

“The temperature and pressure on board the station are within norms and there is no risk to the health and safety of the crew,” it said in a statement.

Roscosmos’ initial statement left unclear whether the entire cargo ship was depressurized or just some of its systems, but Sergei Krikalev, head of Roscosmos’ crew programs, later clarified that the vehicle’s coolant circuit was depressurized.

NASA said its specialists are assisting their Russian counterparts in troubleshooting the coolant leak.

“Officials are monitoring all International Space Station systems and are not tracking other issues,” NASA said. “The crew who have been notified of the leak in the cooling circuit are not in danger and are continuing normal operations of the space station.”

The depressurization of the cargo ship’s coolant circuit follows a similar incident in December with the Soyuz crew capsule that Russian space officials said was caused by a tiny meteoroid that left a small hole in the external radiator and spurted coolant into space.

Roscosmos has launched a probe into a possible cause of the cooling circuit leak, and Krikalev said experts will closely study the materials and technologies used in the manufacture of spacecraft as part of the probe.

“We need to conduct a thorough analysis to ensure that similar components used in the future will not be affected,” Krikalev said. “That is the most important task.”

Roscosmos found that prior to the leak, the cargo ship had already been loaded with waste before it could be disposed of on schedule. The ship is scheduled to be undocked from the station on February 18 and deorbited to burn up in the atmosphere.

The announcement came shortly after a new Russian cargo ship smoothly docked at the station on Saturday. The Progress MS-22 delivered nearly three tons of food, water and fuel, and scientific equipment for the crew.

Roscosmos said the incident did not affect the docking of the new cargo ship and “will have no impact on the future station program.”

Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio were scheduled to use the Soyuz crew capsule to return to Earth in March, but Russian space officials decided higher temperatures due to the coolant leak could make use dangerous.

They decided to launch a new Soyuz capsule on February 20 so that the crew would have a lifeboat in case of an emergency. However, since it will be traveling in automatic mode to speed up launch, a replacement crew will now have to wait until late summer or fall when another capsule is ready. This means that Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio will have to stay on the station several months longer, potentially delaying their mission by almost a year.

NASA participated in all discussions and approved the plan.

In addition to Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, the space station is home to NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada; Russian Anna Kikina; and Japan’s Koichi Wakata. The four went up in a SpaceX capsule last October.

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