an astronaut of the POT and two Russian cosmonauts from Roscosmos are in danger of being stranded on the International Space Station (ISS, for its acronym in English), a fact that keeps space agencies on alert.
According to the report published on the website of gizmodothe Soyuz spacecraft experienced a coolant leak in low-Earth orbit, forcing astronomers to cancel a spacewalk and its return trip to Earth suddenly cancelled.
The report adds that the crew on board the ISS was not harmed, but the Soyuz “outer casing” in the service module was, resulting in the leak. The cause of the damage to the ship’s service module is unknown.
What will happen to the astronauts?
It is not yet clear if the affected spacecraft will be able to carry its associated astronauts back home. Salvadoran-born NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin launched aboard the Soyuz spacecraft in September and plan to return to Earth in the spring of 2023.
The Soyuz could still function as a comeback vehiclebut if Roscosmos and NASA consider it unusable, Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin would be stranded aboard the ISS until a replacement vehicle is flown to the orbiting laboratory.
The live broadcast of NASA’s spacewalk showed the jet of particles shooting out of the spacecraft into space.
The Russian space agency could launch the next Soyuz to the Station without a crew on board as a replacement, but it’s unclear when the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft might be ready for launch and doing so would affect future crew rotations, which were preparing for his trip in March 2023.
NASA and Roscosmos are working together to determine the next course of action following their analysis, the US agency wrote in a blog post. This occurs just when the relations of the aforementioned agencies are at a point of tension.