Astronaut who found blob growing outside International Space Station warned to flee immediately
Being told to 'leg it' isn't exactly ideal while you are sporting a weighty spacesuit, floating around in the solar system and trying to check what's going wrong - but it's the card that this Russian cosmonaut was dealt.
I mean, I doubt the Russian space agency Roscosmos used that exact phrase to tell Oleg Kononenko to make himself scarce with immediate effect, but still the sentiment remains the same.
The 60-year-old was worryingly told that he needed to get his skates on - fast - while dealing with quite the unorthodox situation after venturing outside of the safety of the International Space Station (ISS) on 25 October, 2023.
Although spacewalks come as part of the territory, they are not as usually as dramatic as the one that Kononenko - who is the first person to spend 1,000 days in orbit - and his colleague Nikolai Chub dealt with.
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The Russian duo headed onboard the ISS the month prior for 'Expedition 70' alongside Konstantin Borisov, Andreas Mogensen, Satoshi Furukawa as well as NASA's Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara.
The team of boffins were sent up into space to research heart health, cancer treatments and space manufacturing techniques, among other interesting things.
But they ran into a spot of bother when an external radiator began leaking, forcing Kononenko and Chub to conduct an unprecedented spacewalk - which was the former's sixth and the latter's first.
Roscosmos reported that the source of the issue appeared to be a backup radiator that was mounted on the outside of the Nauka module, which is where astronauts carry out experiments.
Although the main radiator was still operational, the Russian space agency wanted those onboard the ISS to fix the problem and so Kononenko and Chub were sent out to have a look at it before reporting back to those on the ground.
But they would soon realise it was a bit more complex than they might have first though.
Kononenko took the lead during the reconnaissance trip and informed Moscow Mission Control that there were a number of holes on the radiator panel, although he initially 'did not see any traces of coolant'.
"The holes have very even edges, like they've been drilled through," the flight engineer said. "There are lots of them. They are spread in a chaotic manner."
However, it wasn't the holes he had to worry about.
Kononenko had a much bigger problem on his hands - the fact that he had encountered a growing 'blob', or 'droplet', while trying to soak up any escaping liquid from the generator.
He had intended to mop up the leak with a cloth towel, but it was a lot more liquid than he had first expected.
It turns out that this 'blob' was residual coolant, which had been disturbed while Kononenko and Chub were carrying out their work close to the valves - and it attached itself to Kononenko's safety tether, which keeps him connected to the ISS.
His superiors instructed him to leave the area immediately and return to the ISS after the breach, although the Russian insisted none of the liquid had reached his suit.
Thankfully, the astronauts were well prepared for this kind of incident and had taken tissues and cloths to wipe down their gear and tools so that they wouldn't bring any contaminated kit back inside of the ISS.
Kononenko instead had to 'bag' his tether which had touched the bizarre blob and then left it outside after the spacewalk - which lasted seven hours and 41 minutes - came to an end.
I bet there is never a dull moment on that ISS, eh?
Roscosmos later announced in a Telegram post that the lab's primary coolant loop was not affected and 'the crew and the station are not in any danger,' according to CBS News.
The Expedition 70 crew then safely returned to Earth on 5 April, 2024, after the 191 day mission was complete.
Olivia Burke