The cosmonaut who found a blob growing outside of the International Space Station had to make a risky move in order to escape it.
Not knowing just how dangerous the blob was, he made a brave decision in order to protect his crew and stop the potentially dangerous substance from spreading back on the ISS.
Cosmonauts onboard were initially told to conduct a spacewalk in October 2023 to repair a leaking radiator when during the inspection, one cosmonaut, Oleg Kononenko, noticed that there were several holes in the radiator panel.
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“The holes have very even edges, like they’ve been drilled through. There are lots of them. They are spread in a chaotic manner,” he told Moscow Mission control at the time.
While the crew had been equipped with a cloth towel to absorb any of the liquid that might escape from the radiator, it was Kononenko that spotted a globule which is believed to have been formed from residual ammonia coolant.
The coolant was not immediately dangerous but it did have the potential to pose complications.
Taking orders from mission control, Kononenko was told to immediately leave the area after finding that the blob had spread onto his safety tether.
But there was one problem… with the blob on his tether, Kononenko would be forced to unclip himself.
The dangerous move could have disastrous consequences if the cosmonaut lost grip of the spacewalk and he was at risk of floating away into outer space.
Kononenko freed himself from the compromised tether and carefully made his way back along to the spacewalk and into the safety of the ISS.
The brave move meant that the cosmonaut avoided spreading the dangerous substance inside the station and luckily, the plan was a success.
The tether was then placed in a secure bag in case of contamination and the radiator is said to have since been fixed but it is still unknown what the cause of the initial leak was.
On another mission, Kononenko and Chub installed a synthetic radar communications system and released a nanosatellite to test solar sail technology. The radar will be used to monitor Earth's environment.
In other space science news, a video showing the sound of two black holes colliding has left people baffled.
The rare phenomenon would cause a collision on a truly galactic scale and the viewers of the clip commented on how “terrifying” the sound is.