It is occurred once more. A Russian Progress cargo spacecraft docked to the Worldwide House Station has sprung a coolant leak, NASA mentioned in a press release on Saturday. That is the second incident of this kind in current months after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft connected to the ISS spewed out coolant from a leak in December.

NASA mentioned “engineers on the Russian Mission Management Middle exterior Moscow recorded a depressurization within the unpiloted Roscosmos Progress 82 cargo ship’s coolant loop, which is docked to the space-facing Poisk module on the station.” The reason for the leak is below investigation. 

The uncrewed Progress 82 (also referred to as Progress MS-21) arrived in late October of final yr carrying a number of tons of meals, gas and provides. It is at present full of trash for disposal and is scheduled to undock on Friday, Feb. 17, to dissipate in Earth’s ambiance.

Most significantly, the crew — which consists of three NASA astronauts, one Japanese astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts — is protected. “The hatches between the Progress 82 and the station are open, and temperatures and pressures aboard the station are all regular,” NASA mentioned. “The crew, which was knowledgeable of the cooling loop leak, is in no hazard and persevering with with regular house station operations.”

At the least the Progress spacecraft is not used to hold people. NASA and Roscomos declared the leaky Soyuz MS-22 unfit to carry crew again to Earth, necessitating a brand new plan for getting NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin again house. The companies hatched a plan to ship up a contemporary Soyuz in February and detach MS-22 with no crew on board.  

Roscosmos and NASA suspect a micrometeorite (a tiny house rock) could have precipitated the Soyuz leak. It is unknown but if the Progress downside is likely to be traced to an identical supply or if the leak is coming from an identical location. A leak on a cargo craft is not as worrisome because the Soyuz leak, however the mixture of the 2 so shut collectively will probably set off further scrutiny of Russian spacecraft, particularly because the launch of a “substitute” Soyuz nears.