Russia releases 1st images of damage to leaky Soyuz spacecraft (photos)

February 13, 2023

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Russia’s space company launched the primary public photos of the supply of a radiator leak aboard a Soyuz spacecraft docked on the Worldwide House Station.

The photographs have been shared on Monday (Feb. 13) in a submit on the company’s official Telegram account. In line with the submit, the photographs present proof of exterior harm, and Russia’s space company Roscosmos has beforehand acknowledged that the leak, which occurred on Dec. 14, was brought on by a meteoroid impact. “A picture of the outlet within the radiator of the ship’s thermoregulation system, captured with the digicam on the manipulator on the American phase of the ISS,” the caption on the picture states.

The Telegram post (opens in new tab) provides that Roscosmos is presently investigating the leak, and has postponed the launch of a substitute Soyuz spacecraft, MS-23, till March 2023 till a trigger for the mishap has been discovered. The photographs come simply two days after a coolant leak was detected aboard another Russian craft docked on the ISS, this time the Progress 82 robotic cargo capsule.

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

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

NASA program managers have been fast to notice that the leaky Soyuz MS-22 — which introduced NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin to the International Space Station (ISS) final September — poses no hazard to the orbiting lab or its crewmembers. Nonetheless, the scenario has prompted some scrambling by the ISS companions.

MS-22 has been deemed unsafe to fly astronauts again to Earth besides within the occasion of an emergency aboard the station. If an evacuation is required earlier than MS-23 arrives, Prokopyev and Petelin will go house within the MS-22. However Rubio will fly down in a SpaceX Dragon capsule, cramming in with 4 different astronauts. (Having a 3rd particular person contained in the coolant-less Soyuz in the course of the fiery journey via Earth’s ambiance is considered as a dangerous proposition.)

The Soyuz MS-23 that can substitute the leaky MS-22 was initially projected to launch in February from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. That slight delay most likely will not considerably have an effect on the missions of Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin, who have been already slated to remain aboard the ISS twice as long as originally planned.

“The plan is for Frank and Dimitri and Sergey to remain on board for a number of extra months till they arrive house, most likely [in] late September,” Dina Contella, NASA’s ISS operations integration supervisor, stated throughout a press convention on Jan. 17.

In response to the purported meteoroid strike that broken Soyuz MS-22, NASA has begun discussions with SpaceX to add more shielding to the corporate’s Crew Dragon capsules. The following SpaceX crew mission to the ISS, Crew-6, is scheduled to launch on Feb. 26.

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