The damaged Soyuz space capsule returned without a crew from the International Space Station (ISS) today. At 7:46 a.m. EDT (5:46 p.m. local time), the descent module of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft made an automatic parachute ground landing in Kazakhstan.
Today’s touchdown is December 14, 2022, after a leak in the cooling system of the Soyuz capsule that carried NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos astronauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Petelin to the ISS in September 2022. It’s the latest chapter in the drama that began when it was detected.
Preliminary investigations suggested that the spacecraft was damaged by a micrometeorite impact, leaving a 0.8 mm hole in the external cooling radiator located in the service module. The Soyuz was determined to be unsafe for astronauts to use to return to Earth, so the launch schedule was adjusted and a rescue craft Soyuz M-23 was sent to her ISS on February 26. . Returned to Japan in September this year.
Normally, drones from the ISS are allowed to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, but Roscosmos wanted to keep the descent module intact to help investigate the incident.
Source: NASA
