Russia to Ship Spacecraft to Area Station to Convey Residence Crew

Moscow — 

Russia stated Wednesday that it’s going to ship an empty spacecraft to the Worldwide Area Station subsequent month to convey dwelling three astronauts whose deliberate return car was broken by a strike from a tiny meteorite.

The Russian area company, Roscosmos, made the announcement after inspecting the flight worthiness of the Soyuz MS-22 crew capsule on the area station, which sprang a radiator coolant leak in December.

Roscosmos and NASA officers stated at a joint press briefing that an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft, MS-23, can be despatched to the station February 20 to convey Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergei Prokopyev and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio again to Earth.

“We’re not calling it a rescue Soyuz,” stated Joel Montalbano, the area station program supervisor at NASA’s Johnson Area Heart in Houston. “I am calling it a substitute Soyuz.

“Proper now, the crew is protected onboard the area station,” he added.

MS-22 flew Petelin, Prokopyev and Rubio to the area station in September. They have been scheduled to return dwelling in the identical spacecraft in mid-March.

However MS-22 started leaking coolant on December 14 after being hit by what U.S. and Russian area officers stated they believed was a micrometeorite.

“Every part does level to a micrometeorite,” Montalbano stated.

Sergei Krikalev, government director of human area flight applications at Roscosmos, stated the “present principle is that this injury was brought on by a small particle about 1 millimeter in diameter.”

Krikalev stated the choice to make use of MS-23 to fly the crew dwelling was made due to concern over excessive temperatures in MS-22 throughout reentry.

“The principle drawback to land the present Soyuz with crew can be thermal situations as a result of we misplaced warmth rejection functionality,” he stated. “We could have a excessive temperature scenario on Soyuz within the tools compartment and within the crew compartment.”

Montalbano stated discussions have been additionally underway with SpaceX officers about doubtlessly returning a number of crew members on the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule at present docked with the area station.

4 astronauts have been flown to the station by a SpaceX rocket in October for a mission anticipated to final about six months.

“We may safely safe the crew members within the space that the cargo usually returns on the Dragon,” Montalbano stated.

“All that’s just for an emergency, provided that now we have to evacuate ISS,” he burdened. “That is not the nominal plan or something like that.”

Krikalev stated MS-22 would return to Earth after the 2 cosmonauts and the NASA astronaut go away on MS-23. It could convey again tools and experiments that aren’t “temperature delicate,” he stated.

Soyuz MS-23 had been initially scheduled to fly Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA’s Loral O’Hara to the area station on March 16.

Area has remained a uncommon venue of cooperation between Moscow and Washington for the reason that begin of the Russian offensive in Ukraine and ensuing Western sanctions on Russia.

The area station was launched in 1998 at a time of elevated U.S.-Russia cooperation following the Chilly Struggle area race.

Russia has been utilizing the getting older however dependable Soyuz capsules to ferry astronauts into area for the reason that Nineteen Sixties.