Here’s what we know, and what we don’t, about the damaged Soyuz spacecraft - Ars Technica

Enlarge / The European robotic limb is seen investigating Soyuz MS-22 aft a leak occurred Wednesday night.

NASA TV

Since a Soyuz spacecraft began to leak coolant uncontrollably connected Wednesday night, formation controllers astatine Roscosmos, NASA, and different International Space Station partners person been intimately studying information from the incident.

Although determination is nary contiguous information to the 7 astronauts connected committee the abstraction station, this is 1 of the astir superior incidents successful the past of the orbiting laboratory, which has been continuously occupied for astir a 4th of a century. Among the astir pressing questions: Is the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft harmless to alert backmost to Earth? If not, erstwhile tin a replacement, Soyuz MS-23, beryllium flown up? And if determination is an emergency, what bash the 3 unit members slated to alert location connected MS-22 bash successful the meantime?

NASA has not held immoderate briefings since the incidental and has lone released a fairly bland update connected its blog. But determination is simply a batch happening down the scenes, and this communicative volition effort to summarize what is known—and what is not—at this time.

What is known

Roscomos was ne'er capable to stanch the leak of the outer cooling loop, truthful the leak lone stopped erstwhile determination was nary coolant left. In the contiguous aftermath, Russian formation controllers attempted to usage the European robotic arm, attached to the Russian conception of the station, to observe the aft extremity of the Soyuz wherever the leak occurred. This 11-meter limb did not supply conclusive data.

As a result, NASA volition usage the 17.6-meter-long Canadarm2—also known arsenic the abstraction presumption distant manipulator system—to get a person look astatine the Soyuz spacecraft. It's hoped that this ocular inspection, apt to instrumentality spot implicit the weekend, volition supply much definitive accusation connected the root of the leak, its cause, and whether different elements of the Soyuz spacecraft were damaged. To facilitate this work, NASA volition hold a spacewalk planned for Monday by astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada.

In different diagnostic work, Roscosmos performed a trial of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft's thrusters aboriginal connected Friday greeting to find whether determination were immoderate issues with its propulsion system. This test, according to sources, was nominal.

The biggest concern, however, is the formation computers connected committee the Soyuz spacecraft overheating. They are utilized to cipher a precise introduction for the Soyuz to guarantee it lands successful a designated country of Kazakhstan, adjacent betterment forces. Without the formation computers, the process would person to beryllium done manually. This is imaginable but acold from optimal, arsenic the country successful which the Soyuz mightiness onshore would beryllium vast.

During the thruster trial connected Monday morning, the formation machine did lukewarm up, but it did not transcend somesthesia limits, according to a source. There was a speculative study successful the Russian property that the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft reached an interior somesthesia of 50 degrees Celsius, but Roscosmos said this is not accurate.