International Space Station leaking as astronauts warned to close shutters

11 October 2023 , 10:45

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A leak was seen from the Russian segment of the International Space Station (Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)

The International Space Station has sprung a leak as Nasa confirmed a problem from its Russian segment.

Flight controllers in Houston noticed the problem when cameras on the outside showed flakes leaving from one of two radiators on the Roscosmos Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM). Astronauts aboard were advised to close the shutters on the United States’ side as a precaution while teams back on Earth continue investigations.

Nasa confirmed the problem but in a statement confirmed those currently aboard - Andreas Mogensen, Jasmin Moghbeli, Satoshi Furukawa, Loral O'Hara, Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub - were not in danger.

Mission Control confirmed the astronauts are not peril (Scottish Space School)

In a statement, the space organisation said: “At approximately 1 pm NASA flight controllers in mission control at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, using cameras on the International Space Station exterior, observed flakes emanating from one of two radiators . The flight control team informed the crew aboard the space station of the potential leak, and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli confirmed the presence of the flakes from the cupola windows, after which the crew was asked to close the shutters on U.S. segment windows as a precaution against contamination.

“Roscosmos confirmed the observed leak is on Nauka’s backup radiator, which is mounted to the outside of the module. The radiator was delivered to the space station on the Rassvet module during space shuttle mission STS-132 in 2010. It was transferred to the Nauka during a Roscosmos spacewalk in April. The primary radiator on Nauka is working normally, providing full cooling to the module with no impacts to the crew or to space station operations.

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“Teams on the ground will continue to investigate the cause of the leak, and additional updates will be made as available. The crew aboard station was never in any danger.”

The issue is the latest to bug the Russian section of the ISS. Earlier this year two Soyuz crafts ended up leaking coolants. One was aboard a capsule planned to take astronaut Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin back to Earth.

As a result, Rubio became the first American to spend a whole year in space as the issue forced him to stay aboard an extra 180 days, taking his total to 370. When they finally touched down in Kazakhstan last month they had to be pulled out and carried away as they were unable to walk due to their long stay.

Antony Clements-Thrower