An uncrewed Russian spacecraft docked at the space station loses cabin pressure

The Russian Progress MS-21 cargo craft is pictured on Oct. 28, 2022, shortly after docking at the International Space Station. On Saturday, the Russian space corporation said the spacecraft lost cabin pressure. NASA hide caption

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NASA

The Russian Progress MS-21 cargo craft is pictured on Oct. 28, 2022, shortly after docking at the International Space Station. On Saturday, the Russian space corporation said the spacecraft lost cabin pressure.

NASA

An uncrewed Russian spacecraft docked at the International Space Station has lost cabin pressure, but the incident does not pose a danger to the station’s crew, the Russian space corporation said on Saturday.

Specialists near Moscow first identified depressurization inside the Progress MS-21 cargo ship, Roscosmos said. Its passage hatch has since been locked to prevent further loss of pressure.

The cargo spacecraft was scheduled to undock from the International Space Station on Feb. 18. All equipment scheduled for removal has already been loaded onto the spaceship.

Roscosmos said the cause for the spaceship’s unexpected depressurization is being investigated. It added that the incident should not affect the station’s future flight program.

NASA has not yet confirmed to NPR whether it’s responding to the incident.

The announcement came shortly after a new Russian cargo ship docked at the station on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. The Progress MS-22 delivered nearly three tons of food, water and fuel along with scientific equipment.

In December, a planned spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts was abruptly called off after ground teams noticed a leak from a differnt Soyuz spacecraft docked at the space station. The coolant leak was later blamed on a meteoroid strike.