MOSCOW — An uncrewed Russian provide ship docked on the Worldwide House Station has misplaced coolant strain, the Russian area company and NASA reported Saturday, saying the incident doesn’t pose any hazard to the station’s crew.

Roscosmos mentioned the hatch between the station and the Progress MS-21 had been locked so the lack of strain didn’t have an effect on the orbiting outpost.

“The temperature and strain on board the station are inside norms and there’s no hazard to well being and security of the crew,” it mentioned in a press release.

The preliminary assertion from Roscosmos left it unclear whether or not the complete cargo ship or simply a few of its techniques misplaced strain, however Sergei Krikalev, head of Roscosmos’ crewed packages, later clarified that there was depressurization of the craft’s coolant loop.

NASA mentioned its specialists are aiding their Russian counterparts within the troubleshooting of the coolant leak.

“Officers are monitoring all Worldwide House Station techniques and will not be monitoring every other points,” NASA mentioned. “The crew, which was knowledgeable of the cooling loop leak, is in no hazard and persevering with with regular area station operations.”

Roscosmos didn’t say what might have induced the cargo ship to lose strain.

It famous that the cargo ship had already been loaded with waste previous to its scheduled disposal. The craft is ready to be undocked from the station and deorbit to burn within the ambiance on Feb. 18.

The announcement got here shortly after a brand new Russian cargo ship docked easily on the station on Saturday. The Progress MS-22 delivered nearly three tons of meals, water and gas together with scientific tools for the crew.

Roscosmos mentioned that the incident didn’t have an effect on the docking of the brand new cargo ship and “can have no influence on the longer term station program.”

The depressurization of the cargo craft’s coolant loop follows the same incident in December with the Soyuz crew capsule, which was hit by a tiny meteoroid that left a small gap within the exterior radiator and despatched coolant spewing into area.

Russian Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio have been supposed to make use of the capsule to return to Earth in March, however Russian area officers determined that larger temperatures ensuing from the coolant leak may make it harmful to make use of.

They determined to launch a brand new Soyuz capsule on Feb. 20 so the crew have a lifeboat within the occasion of an emergency. However since it’ll journey in computerized mode to expedite the launch, a alternative crew will now have to attend till late summer time or fall when one other capsule is prepared. It signifies that Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio must keep a number of additional months on the station, probably pushing their mission to shut to a 12 months.

NASA took half in all of the discussions and agreed with the plan.

Moreover Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, the area station is house to NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada; Russian Anna Kikina; and Japan’s Koichi Wakata. The 4 rode up on a SpaceX capsule final October.