On Dec. 14, as the cosmonauts were preparing to leave the station’s airlock to perform a spacewalk, ground controllers noticed a leak of coolant spraying uncontrollably into space. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, immediately canceled the spacewalk, and determined the leak was coming from a tiny hole in an external cooling line, about 1 mm wide. The coolant is used to keep the capsule at a comfortable temperatures as it transports it through to atmosphere.
Since then, Roscosmos, in cooperation with NASA, had been trying to determine if the spacecraft was healthy enough to fly the crew home, or if it would need to send up a rescue craft. The teams determined that without the coolant, temperatures inside the spacecraft could exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit that with humidity could affect the spacecraft’s computing systems as well as make the flight uncomfortable for the crew.
NASA and Roscosmos have said that none of the crew on board the station is in danger, and that they have continued to conduct research and science experiments, including growing tomatoes, while crews on the ground figured out how the best plan forward. There are currently seven people on board the station, the three who flew on the Soyuz and another four who flew to the station in October on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is also docked to the station.
In a call with reporters Wednesday, Joel Montalbano, NASA’s space station program manager, sought to downplay the severity of the issue, saying there is “no immediate need for the crew to come home today.”
Speaking from Moscow, where he was involved in meetings with Roscosmos, Montabano said NASA was not “calling it a rescue Soyuz … I’m calling it a replacement Soyuz.”
Sergei Krikalev, the executive director of Roscosmos’ human spaceflight programs, said that the agencies prepare for this sort of situation, knowing they are extremely rare. “This is a scenario we envision, and now we are basically following the procedure,” he said. He said it was “the first time I remember” having to send a replacement spacecraft to the station. “We’ve never had the real need to do this,” he said.
In the very rare occurrence of an emergency that would require the crews to evacuate the station before the rescue Soyuz arrives, NASA and Roscosmos are looking at a number of options. The Soyuz crew could still board its spacecraft and use it as a lifeboat, without returning to the atmosphere. It also might be possible to fit an additional crew member on the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The plan now would involve crews going “in your respective vehicles today,” Montalbano said. “But in parallel we have been talking to SpaceX and looking at an option of what we can do with the SpaceX vehicle.”
He said that NASA officials concurred with Roscosmos’ analysis that found the damage was likely caused by a micrometeoroid. He said there was nothing abnormal “in the manufacturing of this vehicle.” Earth’s orbit has also been flooded with debris resulting from a Russian missile strike of a dead satellite in 2021 that, at the time, required crews on the space station to shelter in their spacecraft.
Overall, Montalbano said that NASA and Roscosmos “have worked extremely well together, both the technical teams and the management team. It is a true testament to the partnership.”
With a fresh Soyuz at the station, Krikalev said the three-member crew would have their mission extended by a number of months. It’s not clear, though, how the replacement vehicle would impact NASA’s schedule. For now, SpaceX is scheduled to fly another crew of astronauts to the station in February. “We’ll need a couple more weeks before we’re ready to define a bunch of new launch dates,” Montalbano said.
He said the crews on board the space station were in good spirits and continuing to go about their business. But he added that, “I may have to fly some more ice cream up to reward them.”
