Roscosmos has decided to delay the launch of the Soyuz MS-23 until the first decade of March at the latest. The ship is expected to return Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev, Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to Earth.
“Until we are convinced and a possible malfunction is located, the launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft in unmanned mode has been postponed at most until the first decade of March,” said head of state agency Yury Borisov. told reporters (quoted by TASS).
Soyuz MS-23 was supposed to launch on February 20, but on February 11, the contour of the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft, which was supposed to complete its flight as part of the International Space Station on February 18, turned out to be unpressurised. .
Roskosmos is investigating the reasons for the depressurization of the Progress MS-21, for this a special commission was created.
“Over the past few months, there have been two emergencies on the ISS related to the violation of the thermal control system on the Soyuz-22 spacecraft and the Progress-21 transport spacecraft. An emergency commission was created, which systematically and thoroughly evaluated all options, ”Borisov said.
“While the outcome of both emergencies is the same, their causes may be different,” he added.
What’s wrong with Progress?
Currently, the ship is isolated from the total volume of the ISS. NASA experts are assisting their Russian colleagues in investigating the incident with a coolant leak. They also monitor the operation of all ISS systems.
According to Sergey Krikalev, Roscosmos executive director of manned space programs, the situation on Progress MS-21 is similar to what happened on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. Borisov stated that in the near future, experts will try to take pictures of the skin, and if there are visible violations in the skin, it is likely “external influence of a meteorite or some kind of space debris.”
What happened at the same time did not affect either the docking of the Progress MS-22 cargo spacecraft, nor the ISS’s subsequent flight schedule.
“I must emphasize that nothing threatens the safety of the crew. An emergency occurred after the docking of the Progress MS-22 transport ship, all hatches were already closed, ”said the head of Roscosmos.
What does Soyuz’s skin look like now?
On February 13, Roscosmos also showed photos of the damage to the skin of the Soyuz MS-22 manned spacecraft, which it received when it collided with a meteoroid in December. The picture clearly shows the hole.
“The presence of this hole proves the cause of what happened – external damage,” the company said in a statement. Telegram.
what happened to the union
On December 15, 2022, the Soyuz crew reported that a diagnostic sensor had tripped and pressure began to drop in the ship’s cooling system. In a post on the NASA website, it was possible to observe jets of technical fluid pouring from the ship. Inside the ship, the temperature began to rise (according to some reports, it rose to almost 50 degrees, but Roscosmos denied this information), the thermal regime stabilized quite quickly. The remaining systems of the ship and station continued to operate normally.
An outside inspection confirmed a refrigerant leak, so all EVA work had to be curtailed. Cosmonaut Anna Kikina took photos and videos of the outer surface of the spacecraft using a camera in the ERA manipulator. On Earth, they determined the location of the damage by analyzing the images. found the solar panel is on the radiator of the cooling system next to the check-in unit.