Shocking Soyuz Leak 408 km above Earth: NASA on alert, Moscow blames meteorite (NASA)

Shocking scenes of liquid spraying out of the stricken Soyuz spacecraft caused alarm bells to ring at Russian space agency Roscosmos and US space agency NASA. A meteorite has been blamed for puncturing the Soyuz spacecraft and causing the leak. (NASA)

Horrifyingly, this happened even as two astronauts were set to take a spacewalk outside the Soyuz spacecraft. As emergency was declared, it caused immediate abandonment of the astronaut spacewalk. (NASA)

What is a meteorite? NASA explains that a meteorite is a space rock that survives its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and lands upon the Earth's surface. In this case it hit the Soyuz spacecraft. Reportedly, it was very small, a micrometeorite. (NASA)

Roscosmos says the meteorite struck the radiator of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule and resulted in coolant leak. Soyuz is attached to the International Space Station 408 km up in Earth's atmosphere. (NASA)

After ground teams at Mission Control in Moscow assessed a shocking coolant leak from the aft end of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked on the International Space Station (ISS), the cause has been identified.  (NASA)

The planned December 14 astronaut spacewalk was canceled to allow time to evaluate the fluid and potential impact on the integrity of the Soyuz spacecraft. (NASA)

NASA and Roscosmos are working together to determine the next course of action following the ongoing analysis.   (NASA)

Notably, according to the Russian authorities, the crew members aboard the space station were safe despite the fearful leak aboard the Soyuz spacecraft. (NASA)