A Soyuz MS-22 rocket launched to the International Station with Expedition 68 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin aboard, on Sept. 21. 2022, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
NASA/Bill Ingalls
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NASA/Bill Ingalls
A Soyuz MS-22 rocket launched to the International Station with Expedition 68 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin aboard, on Sept. 21. 2022, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
NASA/Bill Ingalls
The Russian space agency is preparing to launch a mission on Friday to bring back two cosmonauts and one US astronaut who are on the International Space Station without a designated ship to return home.
The spacecraft that brought the three crew members to the ISS later felt a leak in its coolant package, and officials from both nations had to develop a new plan to get the trio back to Earth.
Here is a brief review of what has happened so far;
Russian Space Pass Coolant Leak in December
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin arrived at the International Space Station in September aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which remained docked at the space station.
On Dec. 14, as Prokopyev and Petelin were preparing to board the planned spacewalk, an external coolant leak occurred on MS-22, NASA said.
After investigating the leak, Roscosmos engineers determined that the craft could not have returned to Earth due to a normal mission. It would still be available in case of emergency evacuation from the space station.
The official Roscosmos leak probably came to mind when a small meteoroid collided with the ship’s radiator; The The guard he reported
Russian and US space officials began working on an alternate plan to return the three crew members to Earth.
Separated from the first Leak stymied
The new design of the Soyuz MS 23 spacecraft will launch to the ISS on February 19. an astronaut and two cosmonauts were to be sent home on a space mission mission.
But that plan was soon put on hold after another coolant leak was discovered in a separate container on the ISS.
A Russian cargo ship named Progress 82, which landed on the space station, unknowingly depressurized its cooling loop on February 11.
The leak in Progress 82 82 was not connected to the planned rescue mission, but prompted engineers at the Russian Mission Control Center near Moscow to investigate why the cargo ship had lost its coolant and delayed the launch of MS-23.
Russian officials approved the mission for this week
MS Soyuz 23 is scheduled to launch on Friday.
Roscosmos announced on Monday that it would allow the embassy to test the ship’s replacement, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported.
The spacecraft will carry about 948 pounds of cargo to the space station, including food and experimental equipment. Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin will fly home in 23 MS for several months. He was supposed to leave in late March, but NASA said in January that his missions would now last until September.
The Russian state commission also decided to return the damaged spacecraft to Earth without a crew, TASS said MS-22.
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