Russian Aircraft Radiator Leaks Again For The Third Time This Year

Illustration of radiator leakage on Roscosmos' Nauka module (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA The radiator of the Russian International Space Station (ISS) again experienced a leak on October 9. This leak was also confirmed by US Aeronautics from the United States Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) Jasmin Moghbeli.

Quoting from Spacenews, this leak of cooling liquid is the third incident in less than a year.NASA's flight controller saw debris from one of the radiators of the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) at 1 p.m. local time.

Although Moghbel confirmed the news online, they do not yet know how much cooling liquid was leaking and how long the leak has been going on.

NASA has contacted the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and they already know about the leak. Roscosmos explained that the radiator had originally been in the Rassvet module since 2010, but was transferred to Nauka earlier this year.

Roscosmos stated that the main thermal control system in Nauka was still functioning properly and there was no danger felt by the flight crew. Although there was no serious impact, NASA's station crew still closed the window to prevent contamination from leaking the radiator.

Prior to this leak, Roscosmos vehicles on the ISS, namely the Soyuz-22, had experienced a cooling leak. Due to this problem, three crew members had to stay longer on the ISS for up to six months.

In addition, the MS-21 Progress plane also experienced a cooling leak last February. This repeated leak is suspected to be due to design or manufacturing defects. However, Roscosmos denied the allegation.

Roscosmos said their aircraft leaks were all caused by external problems, precisely because of orbital debris. NASA did not suspect Roscosmos' statement and accepted the reason.