On December 14, the Roscosmos' Soyuz sprung a leak
in its coolant system. The event caused the cancellation of a spacewalk and
left both the Russian space agency and NASA with a problem. That spacecraft was
going to be used to bring cosmonauts Sergey Prokopeyev and Dmitri Petelin, and
astronaut Frank Rubio, back to Earth in April. What now?
In a press conference, NASA’s Joel Montalbano, the
manager of the International Space Station (ISS) Program, together with Sergei
Krikalev, executive director of the Human Space Flight Programs at Roscosmos
looked at options.
Several types of analysis are being conducted on the
vehicle. The hole was found earlier this week, and investigations are trying to
establish if it was caused by a micrometeoroid hitting the spacecraft.
Alternatively, it could have been caused by space junk, or just a hardware
failure. Crucial data for the viability of the Soyuz MS-22 will be the thermal
analysis, which will assess how hot it will get inside the cabin.
If it could get dangerous, then this Soyuz will be
sent back to Earth empty and another one will be sent in its place. The current
plan was for a Soyuz launch in mid-March, but this would have to be pushed
forward a few weeks and be launched uncrewed to replace MS-22.
Russia has previously announced that it will cease
involvement with the ISS after 2024 – this decision followed the international
sanctions imposed on Russia due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine last
February.
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