Russia says it will take no immediate action on damaged Soyuz spacecraft - Ars Technica

Soyuz sayin' there's a accidental —

In reality, the Soyuz is simply a hardy spacecraft.

Eric Berger - Dec 19, 2022 3:59 p.m. UTC

Enlarge / Three hours aft the coolant leak was initially detected Wednesday night, it remained ongoing.

NASA TV

After moving done the play to amended qualify harm to its Soyuz spacecraft attached to the International Space Station, Russian specialists person decided to instrumentality nary contiguous action.

In a lengthy statement published Monday greeting by Roscosmos (a VPN is required to entree the tract from Western nations), the Russian abstraction corp said it believed that a tiny portion of debris ruptured an outer cooling loop that radiates vigor from wrong the Soyuz into space.

Working with NASA connected Sunday to run the agelong Canadarm2 manipulator arm, Russian specialists were capable to get a wide look astatine the damaged country connected the aft extremity of the Soyuz spacecraft. The country of the spread is astir 0.8 mm across, which, though small, allowed each of the coolant successful the outer loop to beryllium dumped into abstraction past Wednesday. Importantly, the ocular inspection discovered nary different notable harm to the Soyuz conveyance from the debris strike.

Speaking to Russian media connected Monday, the director wide of Roscosmos said moving groups of specialists volition walk astir different week assessing the issue. A determination connected aboriginal actions volition beryllium taken connected December 27, Yuri Borisov said. At this constituent determination are 2 options nether consideration: flying 3 unit members backmost to Earth wrong Soyuz MS-22, oregon autonomously flying the adjacent Soyuz successful line, Soyuz MS-23, up to the presumption for the instrumentality flight. This Soyuz could beryllium acceptable for formation arsenic aboriginal arsenic February 19.

The unit of Soyuz MS-22, cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA's Frank Rubio, launched to the abstraction presumption successful September. They had been owed to instrumentality to Earth successful March earlier the melodramatic coolant leak, which has present delayed 2 spacewalks connected committee the International Space Station arsenic astronauts enactment with crushed controllers to measure the harm to the Soyuz.

Without a functional outer radiator, determination are concerns astir the interior of the Soyuz spacecraft overheating. This could harm delicate formation computers, necessitating a manual reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Much of the enactment implicit the adjacent week volition apt beryllium conducted with the extremity of knowing however the spacecraft's interior somesthesia volition alteration erstwhile it departs from the abstraction station.

In reality, the Soyuz is simply a hardy spacecraft, built to withstand respective failures. Certainly, Russian officials volition beryllium keen to usage the existing spacecraft to alert location if astatine each possible. This is due to the fact that determination volition beryllium a important fiscal outgo if the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, which was owed to ferry 3 caller passengers to the presumption successful March, indispensable beryllium repurposed for this instrumentality flight.

Because Rubio is 1 of the 3 unit members slated to alert home, NASA is besides intimately scrutinizing the data. To date, the bureau has offered constricted nationalist remark connected the issue, preferring to springiness Russian specialists clip to enactment connected the occupation and marque recommendations connected adjacent steps.

For now, the biggest hazard volition travel if determination is simply a wellness exigency with Prokopyev, Petelin, oregon Rubio, oregon if determination is immoderate presumption contented that forces an exigency evacuation. At this clip it is not definite that the Soyuz MS-22 is simply a susceptible lifeboat.