Months have elapsed since the International Space Station faced new strains. The orbiting research hub, operated by the world’s top five space agencies, is experiencing a rough patch. Late last year a small meteorite strike damaged the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, one of the crew transport vessels. The impact forced a rapid abort, leaving three crew members unable to return to the station and effectively stranded in space facilities. A rescue mission led by Roscosmos has been underway to bring them home, with two Russian cosmonauts, Dmitri Petelin and Sergei Prokopiev, along with American astronaut Frank Rubio, who extended his stay because of the incident.
Roscosmos has been coordinating the operation with its American partners for weeks. The plan calls for launching a new Soyuz capsule to the ISS, replacing the damaged spacecraft, and employing a recovery crew to retrieve the three astronauts. The schedule initially pointed to February 20 for launch, but a new crack discovered on Progress MS-21, one of the Russian cargo ships, forced another delay. The aim is to complete the rescue once the fault is fully understood and the risk to the crew is minimized.
Following the latest fault, the task was postponed into early March while investigators assess the cause of the second incident on the Russian cargo ship. Yet this Saturday brought two unexpected announcements from the Roscosmos leadership. First, the launch of Soyuz MS-23 was rescheduled to a three in the morning slot, Moscow time, for the upcoming Friday, February 24. Second, it was revealed that the damaged cargo ship has been located and will be cleared from space facilities and allowed to descend into the Pacific. The mission remains focused on ensuring the safe return of the crew still aboard the station.
Soyuz MS-23 has since entered service. The official release from Roscosmos confirmed the update on February 24. It marked a turning point in the ongoing operations aboard the station as teams work to stabilize staffing and mission schedules amid ongoing challenges.
– Daniel Marín, Eurekablog, February 17, 2023
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The failure of the Russian spacecraft did more than stretch the time the three astronauts could stay tethered to the ISS. It also disrupted plans for several follow on missions. Earlier in the year, American astronaut Laurel O’Hara joined Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub on a planned arrival at the ISS, but the sequence has been pushed back to the next window in the fall. The shift in schedule reflects the ripple effect across international space programs as teams reallocate resources and adjust objectives.
NASA has stated that its task scheduling will be reconfigured to accommodate the new state of play on the space platform. This adjustment could affect missions scheduled over the coming months and delay some launches. There has been talk of leveraging a private American carrier, SpaceX Crew-5, to help bring the crew home if needed, but no final arrangement has been confirmed. Russia remains committed to a rescue at its own expense, prioritizing the safety of the crew and the continued operation of the ISS program.