Astronauts found damage to the outer skin of the instrument-assembly compartment of the Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-22 that is docked to the International Space Station (ISS).
The crew on Thursday reported that the warning device of the spaceship’s diagnostic system went off, indicating a pressure drop in the cooling system, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement by Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos.
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After a visual inspection confirmed the leak, the planned extravehicular activities by crew members of the Russian segment of the ISS, Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, were canceled, it said.
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Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, using a camera on a manipulator mounted on the Nauka multifunctional laboratory module, photographed and filmed the outer surface of the Soyuz MS-22 and transmitted the data back to Earth for study.
Currently, all systems of the ISS and the spaceship are operating normally and the crew is safe, Roscosmos said, adding that a decision will be made on further actions after specialists analyze the situation.
The Soyuz MS-22 manned spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 21, taking Prokopyev, Petelin and a NASA astronaut to the ISS for a six-month stay in orbit.
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