The program of Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin was disrupted on Wednesday when a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) was planned.
This operation was canceled after one of the warning indicators went off in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked with the Space Station.
A coolant leak was detected at the rear of the spacecraft.
"Crew members aboard the Space Station are safe and in no danger during the escape," NASA said.
Despite the geopolitical tensions on Earth, NASA and Roscosmos said they wanted to "work together to determine the course of action, after the ongoing analysis" of the incident.
The European ERA robotic arm was deployed to inspect the location of the leak.
A leak appeared in the external cooling system of the #SoyuzMS22 which is currently docked to the ISS about two hours ago, while Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopiev were preparing for a spacewalk.
The EVA is postponed again (for the second time).
pic.twitter.com/SCiGneGWYa
— Katya Pavlushchenko (@katlinegrey) December 15, 2022
Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Peteline arrived in the ISS on September 21, accompanied by American astronaut Frank Rubio, via the Soyuz rocket launched from Kazakhstan.
It remains to be seen whether this Soyuz will be usable to bring cosmonauts back to Earth?
If not, a replacement vessel will need to be sent.
This is not the first time that incidents have occurred inside the ISS.
Last August, a Russian cosmonaut was forced to return quickly from a spacewalk because of a battery problem on his suit.
