US and Russian astronauts stuck waiting in space after spacecraft suffered damage - Yahoo! Voices

BREVARD, Fla. — NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin are faced with extending their enactment aboard the International Space Station by respective months and volition necessitate a caller thrust location aft their Russian MS-22 Soyuz spacecraft sprang a leak past month.

The trio was expected to usage that spacecraft to instrumentality to Earth successful March. Wednesday, NASA and Russian abstraction officials unveiled a program to motorboat an bare Soyuz capsule to the ISS to ferry them backmost instead. That means the 3 men volition walk respective much months astatine the ISS.

During a briefing with reporters, NASA's Joel Montalbano, manager of the International Space Station program, said that NASA is not considering the move-up successful the MS-23 Soyuz motorboat a rescue mission. "We're not calling it a rescue Soyuz," said Montalbano. "Right now, the unit is harmless onboard the abstraction station."

"I'm calling it a replacement Soyuz," helium said. "There's nary contiguous request for the unit to travel location today."

Extended abstraction stay

Initially acceptable to alert the adjacent rotation of Russian cosmonauts to the presumption successful mid-March, the MS-23 Soyuz spacecraft is present being repurposed to motorboat arsenic an bare lifeboat to ferry the MS-22 unit location aboriginal this year. The bare spacecraft is acceptable to motorboat from Baikonur Cosmodrome successful Kazakhstan connected Feb. 20.

Flying the MS-23 unit up arsenic antecedently planned would person near the ISS successful the aforesaid situation, with much radical connected committee than disposable seats connected functioning spacecraft to evacuate backmost to Earth successful the improbable lawsuit of a catastrophe.

WHAT IS PLANET TOI 700 E LIKE?: NASA conscionable recovered a satellite astir the size of Earth and it's successful the habitable portion of a star

That means that Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin volition request to widen their abstraction enactment until September oregon until Roscosmos tin physique different Soyuz spacecraft to motorboat its adjacent rotation of unit members, which are present stuck grounded for longer than anticipated.

According to Montalbano, the abstraction presumption remains safe, and the unit members are steadfast capable to stay successful abstraction portion this program plays out.

"They're prepared to enactment until the September motorboat date, if that's the case," said Montalbano. "If that motorboat day moves up earlier, past they're prepared to travel location earlier."

Jokingly, helium said: "I whitethorn person to find immoderate much crystal pick to reward them."

"The awesome happening astir our crews are they're consenting to assistance wherever we ask," helium said. "They are acceptable to spell with immoderate determination that we springiness them."

A Russian abstraction leak

The MS-22 Russian Soyuz spacecraft that transported Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin to the presumption backmost successful September sprang a leak connected Dec. 14. Coolant from an outer coolant loop and radiator connected the spacecraft spewed into abstraction for hours conscionable arsenic Prokopyev and Petelin were preparing to behaviour a spacewalk. Out of an abundance of caution to forestall immoderate vulnerability to the leaking substance, the spacewalk was canceled.

On Dec. 18, NASA utilized the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, to supply images and behaviour an further outer inspection of the damaged spacecraft.

After a associated probe conducted by NASA and Roscosmos, the abstraction agencies are assured that the harm was caused by a micrometeoroid interaction that resulted successful a spread of astir 1 millimeter successful diameter successful the coolant loop.

While it was determined that the leak posed nary contiguous menace to the presumption oregon crew, it near the MS-22 Soyuz spacecraft incapable of returning the trio of astronauts location safely.

The damaged coolant loop meant that the somesthesia and humidity wrong the compartment of the Soyuz spacecraft could skyrocket, making for a precise uncomfortable and claustrophobic instrumentality travel home, typically taking astir six hours to complete.

The way forward

Instead of returning unit arsenic expected, astir 2 weeks aft the replacement MS-23 Soyuz docks astatine the station, the damaged MS-22 spacecraft volition beryllium outfitted arsenic a cargo transport ship. NASA and Roscosmos mean to cod information astir the conditions wrong the compartment arsenic the spacecraft makes its travel backmost for a landing successful Kazakhstan successful mid-to-late March.

"On the returning Soyuz, we'll beryllium taking immoderate somesthesia measurements to measurement however the conveyance does successful this script specified that if we ever had a request successful the future, we person immoderate further data," said Montalbano. "We're going to afloat usage this conveyance each the mode till it lands backmost connected Earth."

Also speaking to reporters connected Wednesday, Sergei Krikalev, Roscosmos manager of quality abstraction flight, said, "At this point, we person calculations and thermal scenarios, but we privation to beryllium this calculation with the effect (in) real-time."

FACT CHECK: NASA says Earth is simply a globe, uses 'flat and non-rotating' exemplary successful equations

Going forward, this volition astir apt interaction the engaged docket of unit and cargo missions to the presumption for the remainder of this year. How it impacts circumstantial ngo motorboat dates, specified arsenic NASA's adjacent crewed mission, SpaceX's Crew-6, which was to motorboat from Kennedy Space Center successful mid-February, has yet to beryllium afloat determined.

"We're going to instrumentality the adjacent mates of weeks to benignant of laic retired the plan," said Montalbano. The displacement is expected to interaction astatine slightest 4 crewed missions and 2 cargo resupply missions to the presumption done astatine slightest September.

"Laying everything retired is what we're going to program now. We conscionable request a mates much weeks to laic each that out," Montalbano said.

This nonfiction primitively appeared connected USA TODAY NETWORK: Astronaut unit needs caller Russian spacecraft to travel location aft damage