Moscow: A spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts was called off at the last minute after ground staff discovered a significant leak in one of the spacecraft docked at the orbiting International Space Station.
The leak appeared to originate from the Russian Soyuz MS-22 crew capsule splattered coolant over the orbiting lab's docking port.
International Space Station confirmed the news of the planned December 14 spacewalk of the cosmonauts on its official social media handle.
"Tonight's spacewalk with cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin is cancelled as mission controllers evaluate the impact of a coolant leak seen on the Soyuz MS-22 crew ship. The space station is in good condition and the Expedition 68 crew is safe," as per a tweet from the official handle of the International Space Station.
"The cause of this leak [is] not known at this time," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live commentary. "Russian specialists are continuing to look at the data and discussing what may have triggered the leak." The leaking Soyuz capsule transported the two Russian cosmonauts scheduled for the spacewalk, along with U.S. astronaut Frank Rubio, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 21. The trio is scheduled to return in the capsule in late March.
According to NASA, ground teams in at Roscosmos in Moscow and at NASA in Houston are assessing the nature of the fluid and potential impacts on the integrity of the Soyuz spacecraft. —ANI