Russian cosmonauts examine leaky radiator outside space station during spacewalk
NASA said a backup radiator on the ISS's Nauka multipurpose laboratory module began leaking coolant and stopped on Oct. 9, changing the environment around the ISS. The leak has not affected the cooling of the module.
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Two Russian cosmonauts examined a leaky backup radiator outside the International Space Station on Wednesday while completing other tasks outside the orbiting laboratory.
NASA said a backup radiator on the ISS's Nauka multipurpose laboratory module began leaking coolant and stopped on Oct. 9, changing the environment around the ISS. The leak has not affected the module's cooling, according to NASA.
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On Wednesday, cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub began their extravehicular activity (EVA), also known as a spacewalk, around 2 p.m. ET and were expected to be outside the ISS for about 7 hours.
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub during a Oct. 25, 2023 spacewalk.
(NASA)
During Russian Spacewalk 61, the pair were scheduled to install and deploy scientific payloads and examine the multipurpose laboratory module’s backup external radiator, according to NASA. The cosmonauts were tasked with locating the leak's origin and taking photos and video of the hardware.
While the cosmonauts were completing work to isolate the radiator from the rest of the cooling system, some residual coolant leaked from the radiator and got onto a tether connected to Kononenko’s spacesuit. This helped the cosmonauts locate the leak point when the liquid coolant pooled near the possible leak site on the radiator.
Coolant bubbled near the backup radiator on the ISS Nauka lab. (Image: NASA/Roscosmos)
(NASA)
The tether will be bagged and not brought back into the ISS, NASA commentator Rob Navias said.
Engineers back at mission control will look at their images and video to determine if the radiator can be repaired.
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The radiator was launched to the ISS in 2010. Earlier this year, the radiator was removed and reattached outside the Nauka laboratory module before it began leaking in October.
The leak delayed two scheduled spacewalks for NASA and European Space Agency astronauts to allow more time to complete an analysis of the coolant leak.
(From left) Astronauts Andreas Mogensen, Loral O’Hara, Jasmin Moghbeli, and Satoshi Furukawa show off dosimeters that monitor the amount of radiation the crew is exposed to in space.
(NASA)
NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen were scheduled to collect microorganisms outside the ISS as part of an experiment. That spacewalk will now happen later this year.
The coolant leak also delayed another spacewalk for O'Hara and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, which is now scheduled for Oct. 30. That EVA will mark the fourth all-woman spacewalk in history.