The first leak issue is behind Russia’s delay of the rescue craft
The Soyuz Spacecraft and SpaceX Dragon capsule: Status of the Russian astronauts after a leak in the cargo ship docked at the International Space Station
A planned space walk by two Russian cosmonauts has been canceled after ground teams noticed a leak in one of the cargo ships docked at the International Space Station.
Three astronauts currently stationed at the International Space Station will be travelling back to Earth with the replacement spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23. The vehicle assigned to the mission was found to be leaking in December.
Ground teams at NASA in Houston and at Roscosmos in Moscow are evaluating the potential impacts on the integrity of the Soyuz spacecraft, which is also responsible for bringing them home. The trio are due back in the capsule at the end of March.
Emily Nelson said that the best plan of action was to focus all of datememe datememe’s attention on the Soyuz spaceship and then regroup tomorrow.
The Russian astronauts are looking closely at both the Progress leak and the Soyuz leak, the deputy manager for NASA said on Wednesday.
Four people are currently on the station: NASA’s Nicole Mann and JoshCassada, Japan’s Koichi Wakata and Russia’s Anna Kikina. Those four arrived on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule on Oct. 5. That capsule is only capable of transporting up to four crewmembers back home.
Launching of the Soyuz MS-23 Spacecraft and Transport Mission to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, in the Presence of a Space Station Leak
Officials at Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, have opted to delay the launch of a spacecraft meant to replace one deemed not safe enough to transport astronauts after a second vehicle — a cargo ship — sprang a leak on Saturday, according to NASA.
An uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft was to be launched to the space station in February, giving the astronauts and two cosmonauts a functional vessel to fly home.
An unpiloted Russian cargo ship called Progress 82 that was docked at the space station suffered an unexplained depressurization of its coolant loop on Feb. 11.
Roscosmos also shared new images of the MS-22 vehicle, which it said was proof that the spacecraft sustained external damage that caused the coolant leak.
Russia’s space agency is preparing to launch a mission on Friday to provide a ride for two cosmonauts and one U.S. astronaut who are on the International Space Station without a designated ship to get home.
The three astronauts that were brought to the international space station in the fall had a leak in their cooling loop, which led to a new plan to get them back to Earth.
According to an investigation, the craft wouldn’t be viable for a normal mission back to Earth. In the event of an emergency, it would still be available.
Roscosmos announced on Monday that a state commission had issued a permit approving the launch of the replacement ship, the Russian state news agency TASS reported.
Liftoff of the capsule, called the Soyuz MS-23, took place out of Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan on Thursday at 7:24 p.m. ET, which is 5:24 a.m. Friday local time.
The Poisk module is on the Russian portion of the space station, and it is scheduled to dock with it just after 8 pm.
Instead of flying with crew members when the capsule enters the microgravity region, it launched on Thursday with a Zero-G indicator to tell it if anything is left in the cabin. For this mission, the indicator is a teddy bear tethered by a string inside the cabin.
Plans to launch the rescue vehicle, however, were drawn into question when a Russian cargo ship, called Progress, experienced a similar coolant leak after docking with the space station on February 11. Three days later, Roscosmos had said in a post on the social media site Telegram, that it would delay the Soyuz MS-23 launch until at least March while the agency investigated the cause of the Progress vehicle’s coolant leak.
On Tuesday, however, Roscosmos said in an updated Telegram post that it had determined the cause of the Progress spacecraft leak was “external influences.”
“They formed a state commission that is assessing the anomalies,” she added, noting that the team is analyzing potential causes from the time the capsules launched through their journey in orbit.
Extended Space Station Stay with the Soyuz Cosmic Microwave Background and Possible Impact on the Space Missions of the SpaceX Crew Dragon
The space station was expected to launch on March 16 with cosmonauts Kononenko and Chub and O’hara on board.
It will be extended until they can return to Earth aboard the Soyuz in the middle of this year. That return could happen in September, according to a report from Russia state-run media outlet TASS.
When asked about the extended stay, Joel Montalbano, the space station’s program manager for NASA, said the crew remains in good health and there is no reason to expedite their journey home.
The crew is “willing to help wherever we ask,” Montalbano said during a January 11 news conference. “They’re excited to be in space, excited to work and excited to do the research that we do on orbit. So they are ready to go with whatever decision that we give them.”
Shortly after those four arrive at the space station, NASA’s Crew-5 astronauts will return home from their five-month stay there aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. According to NASA officials there will be no impact on the missions because of the leaks on the Progress and Soyuz vehicles.
