The cooling system of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft leaked due to external damage, as a result, the exit of Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin from the International Space Station (ISS) was canceled. This is reported by Roscosmos.
The astronauts had to spend 6 hours 37 minutes outside the station. Before they opened the hatch, a warning system went off in the ship's diagnostics.
“According to preliminary information, on Thursday, the outer skin of the instrument and assembly compartment of the Soyuz MS-22 manned spacecraft was damaged.
The pressure in the cooling system dropped, a visual inspection confirmed the leak. Cosmonaut Anna Kikina, using a camera installed on the Nauka module, took a video of the outer surface of the ship, the data was transmitted to Earth. Roscosmos claims that now all ISS systems are operating normally.
Reuters, citing NASA, writes that the leak was visible live and looked like a stream of snowflakes flying out of the ship's capsule.
The launch of the Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-22 to the ISS took place on September 21. In March 2023, it is planned to return to Earth together with Russian cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio, and to send the Soyuz MS-23 to the ISS with the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle. On this ship, they want to deliver Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, as well as NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, to the ISS.
The new head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said that Russia is ready to leave the ISS after 2024. Dmitry Rogozin, who held the post before him, demanded the lifting of sanctions on Russian cosmonautics, and NASA criticized the Russian crew of the ISS, which unfurled the flags of the "LPR" and "DPR". So far, Russia has managed to be among the leaders in manned space exploration, but now Moscow risks losing the competence to launch a man into space, for more details , see The Insider.