Earlier this week, after discovering the second leak on a Russian cargo ship that doesn’t fly individuals, Russian house company officers mentioned they have been pushing the launch of the alternative craft to March to offer them further time to analyze the issue.
But in its assertion Wednesday, NASA didn’t put a date on when the alternative ship could be despatched to the house station and mentioned that it was working with engineers from Roscosmos, the Russian house company, “to investigate the cause of coolant loss from both” ships. It added that “the crew is continuing with normal space station operations and scientific research.”
The crew — NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin — launched to the International Space Station in September in what was speculated to be a six-month keep, with a return journey set for March.
Now it’s unclear when the crew will return.
The first setback got here in December, when the crew’s Russian-made Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft sprang a leak, spewing coolant used to maintain the spacecraft at a cushty temperature. Last month, Roscosmos mentioned the leak was possible attributable to a micrometeoroid strike — not a producing defect, a conclusion that NASA mentioned it supported. Given the harm, Roscosmos determined it could be unsafe for the astronauts to fly dwelling in that ship, as initially deliberate. Instead, it mentioned it could ship up a recent spacecraft as a alternative.
That launch was speculated to occur Feb. 19. But then on Saturday, Russian engineers on the mission management middle exterior of Moscow found that one other spacecraft — this one a cargo ship known as Progress 82 — additionally had a coolant leak.
Now that two spacecraft have had comparable issues inside months of one another, NASA officers and their Russian counterparts are confronting new questions on what precipitated the leaks, if they’re associated and whether or not the alternative ship may also have the same drawback.
The Progress cargo spacecraft has been connected to the house station since October. Since the leak was found, NASA mentioned it “has been assisting Roscosmos in collecting imagery” utilizing the house station’s robotic arm.
Normally, crews rotate out after six-month stays on the house station, and Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin have been to return when a alternative crew flying the following spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23, would relieve them. Since Roscosmos is now sending that spacecraft as a rescue automobile, the alternative crew gained’t fly till September. And so Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin could be prolonged till the brand new crew arrives.
Speaking to reporters final month, Joel Montalbano, NASA’s house station program supervisor, mentioned that the crew is “prepared to stay until the September launch date, if that’s the case. If that launch day moves up earlier, then they’re prepared to come home earlier.”
Officials have mentioned that the launch of the following crew could be decided as soon as the alternative craft is launched and connected to the station. NASA and Roscosmos are desirous to get the alternative ship to the station as a result of it could be used as an evacuation automobile within the unlikely likelihood of an emergency aboard the station.