Earlier this week, after discovering the second leak on a Russian cargo ship that doesn’t fly folks, Russian space company officers stated they had been pushing the launch of the substitute 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 substitute ship can be despatched to the space station and stated that it was working with engineers from Roscosmos, the Russian space 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 purported 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 keep the spacecraft at a snug temperature. Last month, Roscosmos stated the leak was seemingly attributable to a micrometeoroid strike — not a manufacturing defect, a conclusion that NASA stated it supported. Given the injury, Roscosmos determined it could be unsafe for the astronauts to fly house in that ship, as initially deliberate. Instead, it stated it could ship up a recent spacecraft as a substitute.
That launch was purported to occur Feb. 19. But then on Saturday, Russian engineers on the mission management middle outdoors of Moscow found that one other spacecraft — this one a cargo ship referred to 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 triggered the leaks, if they’re associated and whether or not the substitute ship may also have a comparable downside.
The Progress cargo spacecraft has been connected to the space station since October. Since the leak was found, NASA stated it “has been assisting Roscosmos in collecting imagery” utilizing the space station’s robotic arm.
Normally, crews rotate out after six-month stays on the space station, and Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin had been to return when a substitute crew flying the following spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23, would relieve them. Since Roscosmos is now sending that spacecraft as a rescue car, the substitute crew received’t fly till September. And so Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin can be prolonged till the brand new crew arrives.
Speaking to reporters final month, Joel Montalbano, NASA’s space station program supervisor, stated 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 stated that the launch of the following crew can be decided as soon as the substitute craft is launched and connected to the station. NASA and Roscosmos are wanting to get the substitute ship to the station as a result of it could be used as an evacuation car within the unlikely likelihood of an emergency aboard the station.