A puncture from a high-velocity meteor smaller than the tip of a sharp pencil made a Russian spacecraft on the International Space Station unsuitable for returning its crew, including one NASA astronaut, Russia said. said Wednesday.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos will instead send a new vehicle to the space station to return to Earth with a three-man crew on February 20. That said, it looks like the return flight won’t start any time soon.
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NASA and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, have investigated a coolant leak aboard a spacecraft that was due to return an astronaut and two astronauts in March 2023.
Credit: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP Via Getty Images
Cosmonauts Frank Rubio, Sergei Prolopiev and Dmitry Petelin arrived at the space station in September 2022 using the Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-22. Coolant was leaking from the capsule attached to the station. The leaching was spotted on a live video camera.
Meanwhile, inside the spacecraft’s cabin, temperatures soared to the mid-80s.
“We believe the Soyuz will return safely,” Sergei Krikarev, head of manned spaceflight at Roscosmos, told a news conference. “The problem is that in small volumes it can get very humid, and the crew can get hot and humid and overheat.”
“I think the Soyuz will return safely.”
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Upon investigation, Roscosmos and NASA determined that a high-velocity micrometeoroid (millimetre-wide rock fragments, not human-made space junk) must have hit the external radiator. They put the leaky, passengerless spacecraft back together and sent a new one, the Soyuz MS-23, to replace it next month. The replacement vehicle will carry supplies to the Low Earth Orbit Laboratory, but will fly without additional crew.
The three were due to return to Japan in March. The change in plans allows them to stay at the station, although it’s not clear how much.This incident will also delay the rotation of the new crew.
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In the event of an emergency at the station, the SpaceX capsule will also be docked there. NASA is in discussions with the company about how the crew could use it if the astronauts had to evacuate quickly.
Joel Montalbano, NASA’s space station program manager, said the crew was well aware of the news, were excited to conduct research in space, and were prepared to stay for a year if necessary. said.
“I might have to fly more ice cream to reward them,” he said.
