Russia delays launch of replacement Soyuz to March

February 15, 2023

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Russia has pushed the launch of its subsequent Soyuz spacecraft to the Worldwide House Station (ISS) into March, a delay of some weeks.

Soyuz automobiles are designed to hold astronauts, however this one, generally known as MS-23, will launch in an uncrewed state. Will probably be a alternative for the Soyuz MS-22 craft, which sprang a leak on Dec. 14 and misplaced all of its coolant to space, an issue that Russia’s space company Roscosmos traced to a likely micrometeoroid strike.

MS-22 continues to be docked to the ISS however has been deemed unfit to carry astronauts house to Earth, until an emergency evacuation of the ISS is required. So MS-23 will change into the new ride home for the MS-22 crew, which consists of cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA’s Frank Rubio.

Associated: Russia to launch new Soyuz capsule to replace leaky spacecraft on space station

The plan had known as for MS-23 to launch from the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Feb. 19. However that timeline has now been pushed again, due to a leak on one other Russian spacecraft docked with the ISS — the Progress-82 freighter, also called Progress MS-21, which launched in late October.

The leak includes the Progress’ coolant system. However Roscosmos is not positive what precipitated it, which explains the launch delay; the company presumably needs to make sure there is no broader problem affecting all Soyuz and Progress automobiles earlier than letting Soyuz MS-23 get off the bottom.

“A fee is engaged on the Progress MS-21 case. Till the reason for the emergency state of affairs is set, a call was made to postpone the launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft in unmanned mode till March 2023,” Roscosmos wrote in a Telegram post on Monday (opens in new tab) (Feb. 13). (The submit was in Russian; translation by Google.)

Neither leak poses a hazard to the astronauts aboard the ISS, NASA and Roscosmos officers have mentioned.

A picture shared on Telegram by the Russian space company Roscosmos exhibiting the situation of a coolant leak and reported meteoroid strike. (Picture credit score: Roscosmos through Telegram)

The Soyuz MS-23 launch delay doubtless will not have an effect on the missions of Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin a lot, if in any respect. The trio was already scheduled to remain aboard the ISS till late September or so, a change made shortly after the MS-22 leak was found.

Initially, the MS-22 crew had been slated to spend a normal six-month stint aboard the orbiting lab. They got here up on MS-22 in September 2022 and have been speculated to fly again house on the car subsequent month.

Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide concerning the seek for alien life. Comply with him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Comply with us @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab), or on Facebook (opens in new tab) and Instagram (opens in new tab).