Rescue operation due to leaks in ISS rocket

Another Soyuz rocket will fly to the ISS on February 20 to return two Russian cosmonauts and a US astronaut to Earth, Roscosmos said on Wednesday. The leaked spaceship must therefore return without a crew.

The leak was discovered on December 14 aboard the spacecraft docked with the ISS. According to Roscosmos, the damage on Soyuz MS-22 is caused by the impact of a small meteorite that caused a hole in the cooling system less than a millimeter in diameter.

Images from the US space agency Nasa in mid-December showed large amounts of white particles – apparently cooler – escaping like snow from the spacecraft. The Russian space agency received the extent of the damage assessed by a commission. The investigation showed that the problems were not caused by a technical malfunction. This has been proven experimentally.

Initially, Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopjew and Dmitri Petelin and their US colleagues Frank Rubio wanted to return to Earth with MS-22. Now, astronauts who have been on the ISS since September will be picked up by MS-23 instead. According to Roskosmos, the Soyuz rocket completed its unmanned flight to the ISS on February 20, only taking supplies aboard. In the case of the MS-22, the return to earth flight will be performed without a crew due to its damage.

Sergei Krikalev, Russia’s manned space program chief, said the decision to use the MS-23 for the return flight was made because of concerns about the high temperatures on the MS-22. “The main problem with the landing of the Soyuz with the existing crew will be the thermal conditions because we have lost our ability to remove the heat,” he said.

“We don’t call it saving the Soyuz,” said Joel Montalbano, ISS program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “I call it the backup Soyuz.” The crew is now “safe in the space station”.

The rescue operation disrupts the program of the Russian space agency. Initially, the MS-23 was not supposed to fly to the ISS until March 16, taking with them two Russians, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Tschub, and their US colleagues, Loral O’Haradrei.

It has not been announced exactly when the spacecraft will bring Prokopjew, Petelin and Rubio to Earth. All he said was that their mission would be “extended”. The three astronauts were originally supposed to return home in March. There are currently seven crew members on the ISS. A German astronaut is not among them.

Roskosmos and Nasa initially assured that the leak from the Soyuz rocket did not pose a danger to the ISS crew. Because MS-22 is malfunctioning, the space station currently has only one spaceship with only four seats for seven crew members.

In an emergency that necessitates evacuation of the ISS, astronauts may have to resort to spacecraft with leaks. Another possibility, according to Nasa and Roscosmos, is to reduce the “thermal load” on the Soyuz by “reducing the crew.” One or more passengers can then be brought back by a SpaceX spacecraft still docked to the ISS.

Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February last year, space has been one of the few areas where Russia and the United States still cooperate. The ISS has been in operation since 1998.

(SDA)