spacetoday.net: ISS astronauts complete spacewalk as Soyuz investigation continues

Posted: Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 11:19 AM ET (1619 GMT)
ISS EVA on 2022 December 22 (NASA)

Two astronauts completed a spacewalk outside the ISS Thursday as an investigation into a Soyuz coolant leak continues. NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio spent seven hours and eight minutes outside the station, successfully installing the fourth of six iROSA solar arrays to augment the station's power supply. At a briefing held during the spacewalk, NASA and Roscosmos officials said they are continuing to investigate a Soyuz coolant leak last week. They ruled out the leak being caused by a micrometeoroid from the Geminid meteor shower. Still, they said they don't know if another micrometeoroid, orbital debris or a hardware failure caused it. Roscosmos is still studying whether the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft can safely return its crew to Earth in March or if a new Soyuz will need to be sent up without a crew to replace it. That new Soyuz, scheduled to launch mid-March, could be moved up two to three weeks.