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Roscosmos reports damage in Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft’s external casing

According to the preliminary information, the external casing of the Soyuz MS-22 crew spacecraft’s instrumentation and equipment compartment was damaged

MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. The Russian Soyuz MS-22 manned spacecraft docked to the International Space Station (ISS) sustained damage to its external casing, the Roscosmos press office reported on Thursday.

"According to the preliminary information, the external casing of the Soyuz MS-22 crew spacecraft’s instrumentation and equipment compartment was damaged on Thursday, December 15," the press office said in a statement.

As Roscosmos specified, the crew later reported an activation of the sensor of the spaceship’s fault detection system that signaled a drop in pressure in the cooling system.

"The visual inspection confirmed the leaking, following which a decision was made on interrupting scheduled extra-vehicular activities by ISS Russian segment crewmembers Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin," the statement says.

Roscosmos female cosmonaut Anna Kikina made photos and video footage of the spaceship’s external surface with the help of a camera on the ERA robotic arm.

"The data has been transmitted to Mission Control and specialists have begun studying the images," Roscosmos said.

Spacewalk cancellation

The Roscosmos press office reported earlier on Thursday that the commission was currently analyzing the incident with a system of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, following which a decision would be made on further activities by ground teams and cosmonauts aboard the ISS.

Roscosmos announced earlier on Thursday that the scheduled spacewalk had been cancelled over technical reasons. As a Mission Control specialist specified during communications with the cosmonauts, the extra-vehicular activity was cancelled over a coolant leak in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the orbital outpost. Meanwhile, the integrity of the spaceship from inside was not impacted, it said.

During cosmonaut Prokopyev’s previous space expedition, a hole was found in the habitation module of the Soyuz MS-09 spaceship parked at the ISS. At that time, Prokopyev and his teammate Oleg Kononenko had to make a spacewalk to examine the spaceship’s external surface.

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