An astronaut on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) discovered an odd ‘blob’ in space and was told to leave the area ‘immediately’.
The ISS was launched almost 30 years ago and is the largest spacecraft ever built.
It’s operated by five space agencies: NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, Russia’s Roscosmos, the European Space Agency, and Japan’s JAXA, and moves at a phenomenal speed, which means it orbits the Earth more than 15 times per day.
The ISS has provided the longest continuous presence of humans in space, and there have been some pretty scary moments throughout the years.
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The blob was spotted just outside the International Space Station
In 2015, astronauts on board the International Space Station were told to prepare themselves for the worst after ground staff spotted an asteroid hurtling towards it.
And in 2023, two Russian cosmonauts came across something suspicious on a spacewalk.
Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub were on the Expedition 70 spacewalk on the ISS when they came across the weird blob.
The astronauts contacted control and were instructed to immediately leave the area.
However, the substance wasn’t some sort of scary alien liquid.
It actually turned out to be caused by a radiator that was leaking coolant.
The coolant had begun to pool outside, which was what the astronauts spotted.
The two men managed to isolate the leak so that it wouldn’t contaminate anything else.
Kononenko had then planned on mopping up the liquid, but after some of it got onto his safety tether, he was told to leave immediately.
The tether was then placed inside a bag, and the two astronauts followed safety procedures to make sure their suits were free from contamination before re-entering the space station.
Although mysterious space blobs and leaking coolant might sound like a cause for panic, both men were fine and were able to return safely to the ISS.
NASA has said the ISS will be de-orbited in 2031
When it was launched, the ISS was originally intended for a 15-year mission, but it has almost doubled that and has been in orbit for 27 years, three months, and 26 days – at the time of writing – and has been continuously occupied by humans for more than 25 years.
However, all good things must come to an end, and the station is expected to cease operations after 2030.
The ISS will be de-orbited using the US Deorbit Vehicle in January 2031.
The remnants of the ISS will be directed to a remote part of the South Pacific Ocean, which has been nicknamed the spacecraft cemetery.
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