The leak has now ceased, as was reported by
The primary radiator on Nauka continues to work normally, providing full cooling to the module with no impacts to the crew or to space station operations.
Historical Background and Ongoing Investigation
The backup radiator was delivered to the space station on the Rassvet module during space shuttle mission STS-132 in 2010. It was transferred to the Nauka during a Roscosmos spacewalk in April.
Teams on the ground continue to investigate the cause of the leak, and additional updates will be made as soon as available.
Daily Operations Aboard the ISS
Meanwhile, cargo operations and maintenance rounded out the day aboard the
Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub are also getting ready for a spacewalk together planned at the end of the month to install new hardware and deploy nanosatellites. The duo spent Wednesday morning studying the procedures planned for the six-hour and 45-minute spacewalk. After lunchtime, the Roscosmos flight engineers began collecting their spacesuit components and organizing spacewalking tools.
Cargo Transfer and Maintenance
Amidst the spacewalk prep work today, O’Hara, Mogensen, and Furukawa also took turns transferring cargo in and out of the Cygnus space freighter berthed to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port. Cygnus launched to the orbital outpost on August 1, carrying food, fuel, supplies, and new science experiments to study gene therapy, atmospheric density, spacecraft fire safety, and more. The cargo craft from Northrop Grumman is due to end its mission and depart in December.
Cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov spent his day supporting life support and electronics maintenance. The first-time space flyer finalized a session of carbon dioxide monitoring and readied radiation detectors that will be worn on spacesuits on an upcoming spacewalk. He also charged camcorder batteries and reconfigured video cameras.