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Russia is prepping a ‘rescue’ mission following a coolant leak on a Soyuz capsule docked with the Worldwide House Station. NASA mentioned in a media briefing that Russia’s Roscosmos company will ship an empty Soyuz to the station on February twentieth as a substitute for the broken spacecraft. The automobile was initially purported to launch in March.
The leaking capsule is predicted to return to Earth with no crew someday in March. It can nonetheless carry experiments and different cargo. Cosmonauts Dmitriy Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, in addition to NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, will now stay in orbit for a number of months longer relatively than departing in March as deliberate.
The affected craft began spraying particles December 14th. The ISS staff rapidly seen that an exterior radiator cooling loop was accountable, and investigators later decided {that a} micrometeoroid struck the radiator. Roscosmos quickly determined the Soyuz was too harmful to make use of for the standard crew return. Temperatures would have climbed previous 100F on reentry, threatening each occupants and pc gear. An in-space restore could be impractical because the process could be too tough, in line with the company’s Sergei Krikalev.
The ISS crew continues to be ready to make use of the damaged Soyuz to evacuate in an emergency. Nevertheless, that is not splendid when three of the seven folks aboard the ISS would probably have to simply accept elevated dangers to come back residence. A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule can be docked, however it usually solely takes 4 occupants. NASA’s ISS program head Joel Montalbano mentioned on the briefing that there had been talks with SpaceX to see if one of many Soyuz passengers might journey aboard the Crew Dragon if needed.
Relations between NASA and Roscomos are strained following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia mentioned final summer time that it might go away the ISS after 2024 to work by itself area station, and the US has been making ready for a doable Russian withdrawal since 2021. Nevertheless, the capsule leak has successfully pressured the 2 to work carefully collectively — if solely briefly.
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