Russia to rescue ISS crew on spare rocket after capsule leak |
January 11 (Reuters) – Russia said Wednesday that two astronauts from the International Space Station and a USA will launch another Soyuz spacecraft next month to bring the astronaut home.
The leak occurred in one of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule’s external cooling system, which is small — less than 1 millimeter wide — and placed in one of two return capsules to the ISS that can bring crew members home.
Russiathe new capsule to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 will be brought to Earth empty in February 20said that it will be sent in
“After analyzing the state of the spacecraft, thermal calculations and technical documents, it was concluded that MS-22 should be landed without a crew on board,” said Yuri Borisov, head of the Russian space agency “Roscosmos”.
Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and USA astronaut Francisco Rubio was supposed to end their mission in March, but now they will return aboard MS-23 after extending the period by several months.
“They’re ready to go with the decision we’ve made for them,” NASA’s ISS program manager Joel Montalbano said at a news conference. “I might have to fly more ice cream to reward them,” he said.
“SAFE IS NOT A SAFE PLACE”
MS-23, which was supposed to receive three new crews in March, will instead take off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan next month as an unmanned rescue mission.
Meanwhile, Roscosmos said it would consider using the MS-22 spacecraft to rescue the crew in case of an emergency. In this scenario, the temperature in the capsule can reach unhealthy levels of 30-40 degrees Celsius (86-104 degrees Fahrenheit).
“In an emergency situation, when there is a real threat to the life of the crew on the station, the danger of staying on the station is likely to be higher than landing on an unhealthy Soyuz,” – Russian crew space chief Sergei Krikalev programs, he said.
The incident disrupted operations on Russia’s ISS, forcing astronauts to suspend spacewalks as officials looked into a leaking capsule that served as a lifeboat for the crew.
The leak is also a problem for NASA. Last month USA alternative trip home for some ISS crew members if SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft fails to launch another Russian Soyuz offer said he was investigating what he could do.
Both NASA and Roscosmos believe the leak was caused by a micrometeoroid – a small particle of space rock – hitting the capsule at high speed.
“Space is neither a safe place nor a safe environment. We have meteorites, vacuum and high temperature, and we have complex equipment that can fail,” Krikalev said.
“Now we are faced with one of the scenarios … we are prepared for this situation.”
Reporting by Caleb Davis and Joey Roulette Editing by Mark Trevelyan
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
2023-01-12 02:06:37
Source – reuters
Translation“24 HOURS”