Russia considers ways to return space crew after capsule leak - Al Jazeera English

Tests are being conducted to find whether the Soyuz MS-22 capsule is unfit for crewed formation aft coolant leak.

Russia’s abstraction bureau is considering a “rescue” program to bring location 3 unit members up of docket from the International Space Station (ISS) aft their Soyuz capsule sprang a coolant leak.

Roscosmos and NASA officials said astatine a quality league connected Thursday that they are continuing to analyse however the coolant enactment of the capsule’s outer radiator sustained a tiny puncture past week, conscionable arsenic 2 cosmonauts were preparing for a regular spacewalk.

No last determination has been made astir the precise means by which the 3 Russian unit members volition instrumentality to Earth – whether by launching different bare Soyuz to retrieve them oregon by the seemingly little apt enactment of sending them location successful the leaky capsule without astir of its coolant.

Sergei Krikalev, who leads quality spaceflight programs astatine Russia’s Roscosmos, told reporters the harm was being assessed.

LIVE: Listen arsenic we sermon the ongoing probe of an outer leak that occurred connected Dec. 14 from the Soyuz spacecraft docked to the @Space_Station. https://t.co/nLniKx5igz

— NASA (@NASA) December 22, 2022

If a thermal analysis, which assesses however blistery it volition get wrong the cabin, concludes that the Soyuz MS-22 capsule is unfit for crewed flight, past a scheduled motorboat of different Soyuz capsule successful mid-March from Baikonur Cosmodrome could beryllium moved up and the capsule would beryllium sent to the ISS without crew, helium said.

“They’re looking astatine precocious February to nonstop up the adjacent Soyuz vehicle,” added Joel Montalbano, NASA’s ISS programme manager, who was besides connected the call.

If this were the case, the damaged spaceship would instrumentality to Earth without a crew.

Krikalev said past week that the leak could person been caused by a micro-meteoroid strike. But helium and his NASA counterparts person near unfastened the anticipation of different reasons, specified arsenic a hardware nonaccomplishment oregon an interaction by a tiny portion of abstraction debris.

The ISS said connected Wednesday it had conducted a Debris Avoidance Manoeuvre – 1 of 3 specified operations truthful acold this year. The 2 earlier were successful June and October.

At 8:42am ET, the abstraction presumption conducted a Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver to supply an other measurement of region distant from the predicted way of a fragment of debris, which resulted successful a postponement of the spacewalk by @NASA_Astronauts. https://t.co/sRDeALLf69

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) December 21, 2022

The leak connected December 14 prompted ngo controllers successful Moscow to telephone disconnected a spacewalk arsenic a melodramatic unrecorded NASA webcast showed what appeared to beryllium a flurry of snowflake-like particles spewing from the rear of the Soyuz spacecraft.

The leak lasted for hours and emptied the radiator of coolant utilized to modulate temperatures wrong the unit compartment of the spacecraft.

NASA has said that nary of the ISS unit was ever successful immoderate information from the leak.

The Russian capsule’s unit compartment is presently being vented with airflow allowed done an unfastened hatch to the ISS. NASA has antecedently said the capsule’s temperatures stay “within acceptable limits” but Krikalev added that the somesthesia would emergence rapidly if the hatch to the ISS were closed.

The ISS is simply a subject laboratory spanning the magnitude of a shot field, orbits astir 400km (250 miles) supra the Earth and has been continuously occupied for 20 years.

The presumption is managed by a US-Russian-led partnership, which besides includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries. It has remained a rare venue of cooperation betwixt Moscow and Washington since the commencement of Russia’s warfare connected Ukraine and ensuing Western sanctions connected Russia.

Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dimitry Petelin – who were suited up for the spacewalk astatine the clip the leak was discovered – flew to the ISS connected committee the now-crippled MS-22 capsule on with US astronaut Frank Rubio successful September.

Four different ISS unit members – 2 much from NASA, a 3rd Russian and a Japanese cosmonaut – rode to the ISS successful October via a NASA-contracted SpaceX Crew Dragon. They besides stay connected board, with their capsule parked astatine the ISS.

The leak has upended Russia’s ISS routines for the weeks ahead, forcing a suspension of each aboriginal Roscosmos spacewalks arsenic officials successful Moscow displacement their absorption to the leaky MS-22.

Source

:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies