MOSCOW (AP) — Coolant is leaking from a backup line on the International Space Station, Russian officials said Monday, adding that there was no risk to the crew or outpost.
Russian space agency Roscosmos said coolant was leaking from an external backup radiator for Russia’s new science laboratory. The laboratory’s main thermal control system is working normally, the agency stressed.
“You and the station are not in danger,” said Roscosmos.
NASA confirmed that there was no threat to the station’s seven crew members and operations were continuing as usual.
Roscosmos said engineers were investigating the cause of the leak. The incident follows a recent coolant leak from a Russian spacecraft parked at the station. The leak is thought to have been caused by a small meteoroid.
The laboratory, named Nauku, which means science, arrived at the space station in July 2021.
Last December, a coolant leak from a Soyuz crew capsule docked at the station, and another similar leak from the Progress supply ship were discovered in February. The Russia investigation is complete that the leak was most likely the result of a small meteoroid hit, not a manufacturing defect.
The Soyuz leak resulted in the stay of NASA astronauts being extended Frank Rubio and its two Russian crew members, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, who spent 371 days in orbit instead of six months. A replacement capsule is sent to the station for the return journey.
The space station, a symbol of post-Cold War international cooperation, is now one of the last areas of cooperation between Russia and the West amid tensions caused by Moscow’s military action in Ukraine. NASA and its partners hope to continue operating the orbiting outpost until 2030.
Its current occupants are: NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency, Russian cosmonauts Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.
2023-10-09 22:03:25
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