Russia on Thursday began evaluating the flight capabilities of its Soyuz capsule docked to the International Space Station (ISS) after a dramatic fluid leak last week, and is considering launching a rescue mission for astronauts left aboard the orbiting laboratory, AFP reported, according to a report . Agerpres.

The leakage of coolant from the Soyuz MS-22 space capsule outside the ISS began on December 14. Images released by NASA show very clearly a jet of particles ejected from the back of the Russian capsule.

The damage is being assessed, Sergey Krikalyov, director of the manned flight division of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said at a press conference organized by NASA on Thursday.

If the thermal analysis – with the role of assessing the temperature inside the cabin – concludes that the MS-22 spacecraft is unsuitable for receiving a crew on board, then the launch of another Soyuz capsule, scheduled for mid-March from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with According to a Russian official, Kazakhstan can be overtaken, and this capsule can be sent unmanned to the ISS.

“They plan to send the next Soyuz spacecraft at the end of February,” added Joel Montalbano, NASA’s ISS mission director, who was also present at Thursday’s press conference.

If this happens, the damaged capsule will return to Earth without a crew.

The Soyuz MS-22 space capsule delivered Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, as well as American astronaut Frank Rubio, to the ISS in September.

There are currently seven people aboard the ISS, but if MS-22 is deemed unserviceable, the space station will have only one rescue vehicle capable of carrying only four people if the orbiting laboratory needs to be evacuated.

Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, American astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Kassada, and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata arrived aboard the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule in October.

Further analysis is needed to determine whether this crack was caused by small natural meteorites, man-made debris drifting into orbit, or a technical malfunction.

The ISS is one of the few areas of cooperation between the United States and Russia since the start of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine on February 24 and the sanctions that Western powers have subsequently imposed.

The International Space Station was launched in 1998 in an era of Russian-American cooperation after the space race between Russia and the United States during the Cold War.