by The leaking Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked with the International Space Station (ISS) has a small hole, an inspection has found.
The Soyuz’s coolant ran out on Wednesday evening (December 14) as two cosmonauts prepared to conduct an in-orbit spacewalk outside of the laboratory (which was soon cancelled). In the days since, Russia’s space agency Roskosmos has been trying to pin down the cause and aftermath of the leak, with some help from its ISS partners.
This assistance includes an inspection of the suspected leak area on the Soyuz using cameras mounted on the station’s giant Canadarm2 robotic arm. That survey, which concluded Sunday (December 18), provided some valuable clues, NASA announced Monday (December 19).
“A small hole was observed, and the surface of the cooler around the hole showed discoloration,” NASA officials wrote in a blog post Monday night (opens in new tab). “Roscosmos is evaluating the images to determine if this hole could be from micrometeoroid debris or if it is one of the pre-made radiator vent holes.”
Related: Soyuz leak could strand 3 astronauts on space station, expert warns
A debris impact is one of the more prominent Soyuz leak hypotheses. A Russian scientist, for example, brought up the idea a few days ago in an interview with the state media company TASS.
The Soyuz, known as MS-22, carried cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to the ISS in September. The plan is to fly the trio back to Earth in March.
Roscosmos is currently testing whether the vehicle, which appears to be out of coolant, is up to the task. A decision is expected by the end of the month.
If MS-22 is deemed unfit to fly, another Soyuz will launch from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to bring home Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, Russian space officials said.
The Soyuz is one of only two spacecraft currently carrying astronauts to and from the ISS, along with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.
However, another astronaut taxi should soon join this fleet. Boeing’s Starliner capsule conducted an unmanned test flight to the in-orbit laboratory in May and is scheduled to fly astronauts there for the first time in April.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there (opens in new tab)(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaelwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
