Being told to “f*** off” isn’t ideal when you’re floating around the solar system in a heavy spacesuit trying to figure out what’s going wrong, but that’s exactly the card this Russian cosmonaut was dealt.
I mean, I doubt that the Russian space agency Roscosmos used that Exactly Such a phrase to tell Oleg Kononenko to get out of here immediately, but the mood remains the same.
The 60-year-old was anxiously told he needed to hurry – and fast – as he grappled with a rather unusual situation after leaving the safety of the International Space Station (ISS) on October 25, 2023.
Although spacewalks are part of everyday life, they are usually not as dramatic as the one taken by Kononenko – the first person to spend 1,000 days in orbit – and his colleague Nikolai Chub.
The Russian duo had boarded the ISS for “Expedition 70” the month before, together with Konstantin Borisov, Andreas Mogensen, Satoshi Furukawa, as well as Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara from NASA.
The research team was sent into space to research heart health, cancer treatments, and space manufacturing techniques, among other things.
However, they ran into trouble when an external cooler developed a leak, forcing Kononenko and Chub to undertake an unprecedented spacewalk – the former’s sixth and the latter’s first.
Roscosmos reported that the cause of the problem appeared to be a spare cooler attached to the outside of the Nauka module, where astronauts conduct their experiments.
Even though the main radiator was still operational, the Russian space agency wanted the people on board the ISS to fix the problem, so Kononenko and Chub were sent out to look at the radiator and then report it to the people on the ground.
But they soon realized that it was a bit more complicated than they had first thought.
Oleg Kononenko was asked to leave after sharing his observations with people on the ground (SHAMIL ZHUMATOV/AFP via Getty Images)
Kononenko took command of the reconnaissance flight and informed the Moscow mission control center that there were several holes in the radiator grille, although he initially “could not see any traces of coolant.”
“The holes have very even edges, as if they had been drilled through,” said the flight engineer. “There are many of them. They are distributed chaotically.”
However, it wasn’t the holes he had to worry about.
Kononenko, however, had a much bigger problem: he had encountered an ever-growing “blot” or “droplet” while trying to vacuum up leaking fluid from the generator.
He had planned to wipe up the leak with a towel, but there was a lot more fluid than he initially expected.
The “blob” turned out to be coolant residue that had been kicked up when Kononenko and Chub were working near the valves. This blob got caught on Kononenko’s safety tether that connects him to the ISS.
Astronauts must undertake spacewalks to conduct experiments, make observations or make repairs (NASA via Getty Images)
His superiors ordered him to leave the area immediately and return to the ISS after the break, although the Russian insisted that no liquid had reached his suit.
Fortunately, the astronauts were well prepared for such incidents and had brought tissues and rags to wipe down their equipment and tools so that they would not bring contaminated items back to the ISS.
Instead, Kononenko had to “pack up” his tether, which had touched the bizarre lump, and leave it outside after the end of the spacewalk, which lasted seven hours and 41 minutes.
I bet it’s never boring on the ISS, right?
According to CBS News, Roscosmos later announced in a Telegram post that the laboratory’s primary cooling circuit was not affected and “neither the crew nor the station were in danger.”
The Expedition 70 crew returned safely to Earth on April 5, 2024, after completing the 191-day mission.
