Why did Russia cancel its spacewalk?

If you are a space enthusiast, you probably remember that last month itself, NASA had to postpone its spacewalk mission when the launch of Artemis I had to be delayed, following a severe tropical storm on the Florida coast from where it was scheduled to take off. Later, it was also revealed that the Artemis I had also suffered some technical blows that further postponed the mission. 

And now, a similar incident has occurred for a Russian space capsule named Soyuz MS-22. Although this ROSCOSMOS (Russian space agency) spacecraft has had a successful launch in September 2022 and was docked to the Rassyet module stationed on the International Space Station (ISS), a leak (“a visible stream of flakes”) was detected near the instrumentation and propulsion module ahead of a scheduled spacewalk. Sources cite that it was probably caused by a small-sized meteoroid (known as micrometeoroid, that are naturally occurring space debris such as rocks and metals, often having the size of a grain of sand) that had smashed into the system’s radiator and led to the leakage of the coolant, affecting the capsule’s overall temperature. However, no severe threat for the crew have so far been assessed.  But it could have been dangerous considering these micrometeoroids hover around the space at the speed of 27400 kilometres per hour, a lot faster than the speed of bullet.  

Wondering who detected the leak and how? Well, that would be the ground teams who noticed an unknown substance leaking significantly from the aft portion of the spacecraft right around the time when the cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyey (crew commander) and Dmitri Petelin (flight engineer) were preparing for their evening spacewalk right outside the ISS. In fact, they instantly radio communicated the danger and prevented the mission right on time. So far, the nature of the fluid remains a mystery. Apart from the two Russian astronauts, the spacecraft had also carried NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to the ISS.  

As of now, the Russian flight controllers have cancelled the spacewalk mission but have promised to resume it as soon as the leak is tended. However, whether the spacecraft will be able to safely return to Earth (scheduled for spring 2023) with its manned crew has now come into question. Experts advise that an emergency replacement vehicle would be a better and safer choice to ferry the original passengers back home.  

For those unaware, this spacewalk would have been important as the cosmonauts were supposed to relocate a radiator from one module to another on the Russian side of the ISS.  

Last year, another one of Russia’s spacecrafts was damaged due to man-made space junk.