MOSCOW, RUSSIA: A coolant leak detected from the aft end of the Russian space capsule docked to the International Space Station was likely caused by a micrometeorite strike, according to a Russian space official. 

Sergei Krikalev, a veteran cosmonaut who serves as the director of crewed space flight programs at Roscosmos, said Thursday that a meteorite striking one of the radiators of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule could have caused the coolant to escape.

Krikalev said in a statement that the malfunction could affect the performance of the capsule’s coolant system and the temperature in the equipment section of the capsule.

“There have been no other changes in parameters on the Soyuz spacecraft and the station, so there is no threat for the crew,” he said.

The leak, however, forced the cancellation of a planned spacewalk for Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.

Ground specialists saw a stream of fluid and particles on a live video feed from space, as well as a pressure drop on instruments. 

“Ground teams at Mission Control in Moscow continue to assess a coolant leak detected from the aft end of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the International Space Station. As a result, the planned Dec.14 Roscosmos spacewalk was canceled to allow time to evaluate the fluid and potential impacts to the integrity of the Soyuz spacecraft,” NASA wrote in a blog post.