2023-10-10 11:20:20
MADRID, 10 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) recorded a coolant leak on October 9, which did not put the crew at risk. It is the third similar incident in less than a year.
At approximately 17:00 UTC, NASA flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center, using cameras on the exterior of the International Space Station, observed flakes emanating from one of the two radiators at Roscosmos’ Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM). The flight control team informed the crew aboard the space station of the possible leak, and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli confirmed the presence of scale on the dome windows, after which the crew was asked to close the shutters on the windows of the US segment as a precaution against contamination, NASA reported, which ensures that there was no risk to the crew.
Roscosmos confirmed that the observed leak is in the Nauka backup radiator, which is mounted on the outside of the module. The radiator was delivered to the space station in the Rassvet module during the STS-132 space shuttle mission in 2010. It was transferred to Nauka during a Roscosmos spacewalk in April. Nauka main radiator works normally, providing full cooling to the module with no impact to the crew or space station operations.
The coolant leak did not affect the life of the crew and no experiments were postponed, according to cosmonaut on board Oleg Kononenko, cited by Roscosmos in your Telegram account. According to him, the temperature conditions in the module are pleasant, the cosmonauts were not prohibited from exercising on the treadmill, and all exercises were completed in full.
This is the third coolant leak to affect the Russian segment of the orbital complex in less than a year. On December 15, 2022, cameras captured white particles coming out of a Soyzu ship docked at the station for hours. The investigation attributed the event to the impact of a micrometeorite.
A similar leak in mid-February also affected a Progress MS-21 freighter, which had been docked at the Station since October 2022.
#leak #Russian #part #Space #Station #year