Soyuz leaks might hold astronaut, cosmonauts on area station for a yr

Earlier this week, after discovering the second leak on a Russian cargo ship that doesn’t fly individuals, Russian area company officers mentioned they had been pushing the launch of the alternative craft to March to present them further time to research the issue.

However in its assertion Wednesday, NASA didn’t put a date on when the alternative ship can be despatched to the area station and mentioned that it was working with engineers from Roscosmos, the Russian area company, “to research the reason for coolant loss from each” ships. It added that “the crew is continuous with regular area station operations and scientific analysis.”

The crew — NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin — launched to the Worldwide House Station in September in what was speculated to be a six-month keep, with a return journey set for March.

Now it’s unclear when the crew will return.

The primary setback got here in December, when the crew’s Russian-made Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft sprang a leak, spewing coolant used to maintain the spacecraft at a cushty temperature. Final month, Roscosmos mentioned the leak was doubtless brought on by a micrometeoroid strike — not a producing defect, a conclusion that NASA mentioned it supported. Given the harm, Roscosmos determined it could be unsafe for the astronauts to fly residence in that ship, as initially deliberate. As an alternative, it mentioned it could ship up a contemporary spacecraft as a alternative.

That launch was speculated to occur Feb. 19. However then on Saturday, Russian engineers on the mission management middle outdoors of Moscow found that one other spacecraft — this one a cargo ship known as Progress 82 — additionally had a coolant leak.

Now that two spacecraft have had comparable issues inside months of one another, NASA officers and their Russian counterparts are confronting new questions on what triggered the leaks, if they’re associated and whether or not the alternative ship may additionally have the same downside.

The Progress cargo spacecraft has been hooked up to the area station since October. Because the leak was found, NASA mentioned it “has been aiding Roscosmos in accumulating imagery” utilizing the area station’s robotic arm.

Usually, crews rotate out after six-month stays on the area station, and Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin had been to return when a alternative crew flying the following spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23, would relieve them. Since Roscosmos is now sending that spacecraft as a rescue automobile, the alternative crew gained’t fly till September. And so Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin can be prolonged till the brand new crew arrives.

Chatting with reporters final month, Joel Montalbano, NASA’s area station program supervisor, mentioned that the crew is “ready to remain till the September launch date, if that’s the case. If that launch day strikes up earlier, then they’re ready to return residence earlier.”

Officers have mentioned that the launch of the following crew can be decided as soon as the alternative craft is launched and hooked up to the station. NASA and Roscosmos are wanting to get the alternative ship to the station as a result of it could be used as an evacuation automobile within the unlikely likelihood of an emergency aboard the station.