2 Cosmonauts Encounter Toxic Coolant 'Blob' During Spacewalk Outside International Space Station

Two cosmonauts did a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS). However, the mission was cut short due to a toxic coolant blob.

Cosmonauts Encounter Issue During ISS Spacewalk

On Wednesday, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub conducted a spacewalk outside the ISS. The pair first encountered a coolant leak from an external radiator earlier this month.

One of Kononenko's tethers became polluted because he was so close to the expanding "blob" or "droplet" of ammonia that it had to be packaged and left outside the space station when the spacewalk was finished. At 1:49 p.m. EDT (1749 GMT) on Wednesday, Kononenko and Chub, another Expedition 70 spacewalking team member from Roscosmos, started the extravehicular activity (EVA). They knew that one of their first objectives was to find and photograph the leaky radiator, which had been noticed for the first time on Oct. 9.

To shut off the external radiator from the main body radiator, which controls the temperature within Russia's Nauka multipurpose laboratory module, Kononenko and Chub set up several valves to cut off the external radiator from its ammonia supply. After it was finished and before he noticed the expanding liquid coolant deposit, Kononenko saw a plethora of tiny holes on the radiator's panel surface.

Kononenko told the flight controllers stationed at Moscow Mission Control, "The holes have very even edges like they've been drilled through." There were reportedly many, and they were dispersed erratically.

The remaining ammonia disturbed during the effort to seal the valves is thought to have caused the "blob" to form. The cosmonauts were ready with tissues and rags to wipe down their spacesuits and tools to prevent bringing any hazardous material back inside the space station since they knew they might touch the coolant beforehand.

Russian experts on the ground will use the data gathered by the cosmonauts to learn more about the leak's origin and possible solutions for getting the radiator back into service.

At 9:30 p.m. EDT (0130 GMT on Oct. 26), the hatch to the Poisk module airlock was closed, marking the conclusion of the 7-hour, 41-minute spacewalk.

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Another Spacewalk Done By Cosmonauts

Two Russian cosmonauts also performed a spacewalk in June. Flight engineer Dmitry Petelin and commander Sergey Prokopyev of Expedition 69 left the Poisk module of the space station to retrieve various experiment packages from the Zvezda and Poisk modules and install communication hardware outside the International Space Station.

The two spacewalkers also captured the Zvezda service module's plume deflectors on camera for later examination by Russian experts on the ground. The deflectors shield the station from the exhaust plume of the engine. Since Zvezda's launch on a Russian Proton rocket in July 2000, nearly 23 years ago.

According to Prokopyev, it appears to be a dirty frying pan. That may have produced some delicious french fries. Since it hadn't been washed in a while, Petelin continued, this was the situation.

It was Prokopyev's eighth spacewalk and Petelin's fifth. According to a different NASA release, it was the ninth spacewalk at the station in 2023 and the 266th spacewalk for space station construction, maintenance, and enhancements. The duo completed the spacewalk after 6 hours and 24 minutes.