BREVARD, Fla. — NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin are confronted with extending their keep aboard the Worldwide Area Station by a number of months and would require a brand new journey house after their Russian MS-22 Soyuz spacecraft sprang a leak final month.
The trio was supposed to make use of that spacecraft to return to Earth in March. Wednesday, NASA and Russian house officers unveiled a plan to launch an empty Soyuz capsule to the ISS to ferry them again as a substitute. Meaning the three males will spend a number of extra months on the ISS.
Throughout a briefing with reporters, NASA’s Joel Montalbano, supervisor of the Worldwide Area Station program, mentioned that NASA is just not contemplating the move-up within the MS-23 Soyuz launch a rescue mission. “We’re not calling it a rescue Soyuz,” mentioned Montalbano. “Proper now, the crew is protected onboard the house station.”
“I am calling it a alternative Soyuz,” he mentioned. “There isn’t any speedy want for the crew to return house immediately.”
Prolonged house keep
Initially set to fly the subsequent rotation of Russian cosmonauts to the station in mid-March, the MS-23 Soyuz spacecraft is now being repurposed to launch as an empty lifeboat to ferry the MS-22 crew house later this yr. The empty spacecraft is about to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Feb. 20.
Flying the MS-23 crew up as beforehand deliberate would have left the ISS in the identical scenario, with extra individuals on board than out there seats on functioning spacecraft to evacuate again to Earth within the unlikely occasion of a disaster.
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That signifies that Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin might want to lengthen their house keep till September or till Roscosmos can construct one other Soyuz spacecraft to launch its subsequent rotation of crew members, which at the moment are caught grounded for longer than anticipated.
In line with Montalbano, the house station stays protected, and the crew members are wholesome sufficient to stay in house whereas this plan performs out.
“They’re ready to remain till the September launch date, if that is the case,” mentioned Montalbano. “If that launch date strikes up earlier, then they’re ready to return house earlier.”
Jokingly, he mentioned: “I could have to seek out some extra ice cream to reward them.”
“The superior factor about our crews are they’re keen to assist wherever we ask,” he mentioned. “They’re able to go along with no matter resolution that we give them.”
A Russian house leak
The MS-22 Russian Soyuz spacecraft that transported Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin to the station again in September sprang a leak on Dec. 14. Coolant from an exterior coolant loop and radiator on the spacecraft spewed into house for hours simply as Prokopyev and Petelin had been making ready to conduct a spacewalk. Out of an abundance of warning to stop any publicity to the leaking substance, the spacewalk was canceled.
On Dec. 18, NASA used the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, to offer photographs and conduct an extra exterior inspection of the broken spacecraft.
After a joint investigation carried out by NASA and Roscosmos, the house companies are assured that the harm was brought on by a micrometeoroid affect that resulted in a gap of about one millimeter in diameter within the coolant loop.
Whereas it was decided that the leak posed no speedy risk to the station or crew, it left the MS-22 Soyuz spacecraft incapable of returning the trio of astronauts house safely.
The broken coolant loop meant that the temperature and humidity contained in the cabin of the Soyuz spacecraft may skyrocket, making for a really uncomfortable and claustrophobic return journey house, usually taking about six hours to finish.
The trail ahead
As a substitute of returning crew as anticipated, roughly two weeks after the alternative MS-23 Soyuz docks on the station, the broken MS-22 spacecraft can be outfitted as a cargo transport ship. NASA and Roscosmos intend to gather information in regards to the circumstances contained in the cabin because the spacecraft makes its journey again for a touchdown in Kazakhstan in mid-to-late March.
“On the returning Soyuz, we’ll be taking some temperature measurements to measure how the automobile does on this situation such that if we ever had a necessity sooner or later, we’ve got some further information,” mentioned Montalbano. “We’ll absolutely use this automobile all the way in which until it lands again on Earth.”
Additionally chatting with reporters on Wednesday, Sergei Krikalev, Roscosmos director of human house flight, mentioned, “At this level, we’ve got calculations and thermal situations, however we wish to show this calculation with the outcome (in) real-time.”
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Going ahead, it will almost certainly affect the busy schedule of crew and cargo missions to the station for the remainder of this yr. The way it impacts particular mission launch dates, resembling NASA’s subsequent crewed mission, SpaceX’s Crew-6, which was to launch from Kennedy Area Middle in mid-February, has but to be absolutely decided.
“We’ll take the subsequent couple of weeks to sort of lay out the plan,” mentioned Montalbano. The shift is anticipated to affect at the least 4 crewed missions and two cargo resupply missions to the station via at the least September.
“Laying every thing out is what we will plan now. We simply want a pair extra weeks to put all that out,” Montalbano mentioned.
