Two Russian cosmonauts canceled a routine spacewalk at the International Space Station (ISS) after liquid, possibly coolant, began to spray out of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft.
The incident took place on December 14. 2022, Roscomos said in a statement, reported by Russian news agency TASS.
The two cosmonauts, crew commander Sergei Prokopyev and flight engineer Dmitry Petelin, were preparing to perform the scheduled spacewalk during which the crew was supposed to transfer a radiator from one ISS research module to another. However, flight controllers noticed the liquid leaking from the rear part of the Soyuz capsule, and the task was canceled.
“The spacewalk of cosmonauts […] from the International Space Station under the Russian program has been canceled for technical reasons,” Roscosmos said.
The Russian space corporation explained that the activity was suspended due to the depressurization of an outer circuit of the heat supply system on the Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station.
According to Russian engineer and cosmonaut Anna Kikina, the spacecraft remained airtight. However, the space crew is currently attempting to remove additional telemetry “to see how critical everything is”.
The spacewalk would have been the 12th spacewalk to take place at the ISS during 2022.