Russian house company Roscosmos will ship an empty spacecraft to the Worldwide House Station (ISS) in late February to deliver house three crewmembers — Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin, and Francisco Rubio
The company has been contemplating a number of choices after the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft sustained a leak in December whereas it was docked on the ISS, inflicting the automobile to lose a considerable amount of coolant.
Following an investigation, Russian officers deemed a return trip within the broken capsule too dangerous for the three crewmembers, because the temperature and humidity might rise to insupportable ranges with out the coolant. It would subsequently ship one other Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS on February 20, and produce house the at the moment docked automobile for inspection.
Commenting throughout a media briefing on Wednesday, Yuri Borisov, the pinnacle of Roscosmos, mentioned: “Having analyzed the situation of the spacecraft, thermal calculations, and technical documentation, it has been concluded that the MS-22 should be landed with out a crew on board.”
The brand new plan will trigger some disruption to the unique schedule. The incoming spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23, was imagined to deliver cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, in addition to NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, to the station in March, however for now they’ll keep on terra firma, whereas Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio will stay on the ISS, most likely for not less than a number of months past their authentic March return date. The scenario might additionally influence NASA’s timing for the SpaceX Crew-6 flight, which is at the moment set for mid-February.
In addition to performing as a trip house, the spacecraft docked on the ISS additionally acts as an emergency escape automobile ought to some type of calamity threaten the orbital outpost. In that case, it’s potential the three crewmembers might enter the broken spacecraft for refuge, although Roscosmos continues to be wanting into the feasibility of such a process.
On the present time, two spacecraft are docked on the ISS — the broken Soyuz and a SpaceX Crew Dragon that introduced two People, one Japanese astronaut, and one Russian to the station in October. Final week, it was prompt that the Crew Dragon may very well be used to deliver house all seven astronauts on the finish of their mission, although this feature now seems to have been shelved.
Roscosmos mentioned the outcomes of its investigation recommend the leak was attributable to a micrometeoroid placing the Soyuz capsule at excessive pace.
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