The Soyuz spacecraft docked on a coolant leak at the International Space Station

CNN
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Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has canceled a planned spacewalk after detecting a coolant leak coming from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which is currently docked at the International Space Station.

Speaking on a NASA telecast, NASA’s Rob Navias called it a “fairly important” leak. Live images during the broadcast showed liquid pouring from the Soyuz spacecraft. Navias said the leak was first noticed around 7:45 p.m. ET Wednesday.

The Soyuz spacecraft docked at the Russian part of the space station.

The crew is safe, and all systems of the space station and the ship are operating normally, according to Roscosmos, in a Russian-language statement released Thursday morning on Twitter. (CNN translated the statement.)

“The crew reported that the alarm of the ship’s diagnostic system went off, indicating a decrease in pressure in the cooling system,” according to Roscosmos. “A visual inspection confirmed the leak, after which it was decided to interrupt the planned extravehicular activities of the crew members of the Russian Department of the International Space Station Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin.”

The cause of the coolant leak, Navias said, “is not known and the impact at this point is unknown as Russian managers continue to look at the data and consult with NASA managers and engineers” and outside experts. He said the astronauts inside the station were “never in danger.”

According to Roscosmos, Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, using the camera on the Russian Nuka module of the space station, “photographed and photographed the outer surface of the ship.” “The data has been transmitted to Earth, and specialists have already begun to study the images.”

“No decisions have been made about the safety of Soyuz MS22 or what the next course of action will be,” Navias added, at the conclusion of NASA’s television coverage of the canceled spacewalk.

Roscosmos added that the situation will be analyzed before a decision is made on what comes next.

NASA took a similar tone Thursday statement“NASA and Roscosmos will continue to work together to determine the next course of action after ongoing analysis.”

The Soyuz MS-22 vehicle delivered NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two Russian cosmonauts to the space station on September 21 and is scheduled to return them to Earth in late March.