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Science
Juliana Kim, NPR

An uncrewed Russian spacecraft docked at the space station loses pressure

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The Russian Progress MS-21 cargo craft is pictured on Oct. 28, 2022, shortly after docking at the International Space Station. On Saturday, the Russian space corporation said the spacecraft lost cabin pressure.
The Russian Progress MS-21 cargo craft is pictured on Oct. 28, 2022, shortly after docking at the International Space Station. On Saturday, the Russian space corporation said the spacecraft lost cabin pressure.
NASA

An uncrewed Russian spacecraft docked at the International Space Station has lost pressure, but the incident does not pose a danger to the station's crew, the Russian space corporation said on Saturday.

Engineers at the Russian Mission Control Center near Moscow first identified depressurization inside the Progress MS-21 cargo ship's coolant loop, Roscosmos said. The hatches between the spacecraft and the station were temporarily closed to prevent further loss of pressure.

As of Saturday afternoon, the hatches were re-opened and the temperatures and pressures abroad the station are all normal, according to NASA. The U.S. space agency added that the station crew continues its normal operations and no other issues have been identified.

The unpiloted cargo spacecraft, which is filled with trash, was scheduled to undock from the space station to deorbit over the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 17, NASA said. All the waste scheduled for removal had already been loaded onto the spaceship prior to Saturday's incident.

NASA said its specialists are working with their Russian counterparts to investigate the cause for the unexpected depressurization. Roscosmos added that the incident should not affect the station's future flight program.

The announcement came shortly after a new Russian cargo ship docked at the station on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. The Progress MS-22 delivered nearly three tons of food, water and fuel along with scientific equipment.

In December, a planned spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts was abruptly called off after ground teams noticed a leak from a different Soyuz spacecraft docked at the space station. The coolant leak was later blamed on a meteoroid strike.

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