Coolant pressure has dropped on the unmanned Progress MS-21 spacecraft on the space “parking lot” of the International Space Station (ISS), NASA and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos reported. The ship was isolated from the station, closing the authorities connecting it with it. Astronauts staying on the ISS are fine, both the pressure and temperature at the station are normal, it was reported.
Russia has a space problem again. This time with a supply ship
“There has been a coolant leak from the thermal control system on a cargo ship that has been docked to the station for several months. The situation is similar to what happened to our spacecraft [Sojuz MS-22 – red.] in mid-December,” Sergei Krikalov of Roscosmos told reporters on Saturday. Then the damage to the radiator pipeline caused the impact of the micrometeroid.
It is not yet known what caused the Progress ship to be damaged. The Americans from NASA help the Russians solve the leak. The US space agency said that its specialists are not observing any other problems, and the crew of the station continues its normal activities.
The failure was announced shortly after another Russian ship, Progress MS-22, docked with the ISS, bringing supplies – three tons of food, water, fuel and scientific equipment to the station. According to the Russian space agency, the problems with MS-21 did not affect the delivery acceptance procedure. And these will be very useful, because after the December decompression of the manned Soyuz, it turned out that the Russian cosmonauts will have to stay on the International Space Station for several months longer than planned.
A ship doomed
Progress MS-21 is already doomed to death. His mission is due to end on February 18. It has already been loaded with debris and is scheduled to be detached from the ISS in a week’s time and sent to deorbit to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. It is not known so far whether the failure will somehow change these plans.
There are currently six people on the International Space Station: Sergei Prokopiev, Dmitry Petelin and Anna Kikina from Russia, Franciso Rubio, Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada – Americans from NASA and Japanese Koichi Wakata.
Source: Gazeta
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