Russia has pushed the launch of its subsequent Soyuz spacecraft to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) into March, a delay of some weeks.
Soyuz autos are designed to hold astronauts, however this one, referred to as MS-23, will launch in an uncrewed state. It will likely be a substitute for the Soyuz MS-22 craft, which sprang a leak on Dec. 14 and misplaced all of its coolant to space, an issue that Russia’s space company Roscosmos traced to a likely micrometeoroid strike .
MS-22 remains to be docked to the ISS however has been deemed unfit to carry astronauts dwelling to Earth, until an emergency evacuation of the ISS is required. So MS-23 will develop into the new ride home for the MS-22 crew , which consists of cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA’s Frank Rubio.
Associated: Russia to launch new Soyuz capsule to replace leaky spacecraft on space station
The plan had referred to as for MS-23 to launch from the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Feb. 19. However that timeline has now been pushed again, because of a leak on one other Russian spacecraft docked with the ISS — the Progress-82 freighter , also called Progress MS-21, which launched in late October.
The leak includes the Progress’ coolant system. However Roscosmos is not positive what induced it, which explains the launch delay; the company presumably needs to make sure there is no broader subject affecting all Soyuz and Progress autos earlier than letting Soyuz MS-23 get off the bottom.
“A fee is engaged on the Progress MS-21 case. Till the reason for the emergency scenario is decided, a call was made to postpone the launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft in unmanned mode till March 2023,” Roscosmos wrote in a Telegram post on Monday (opens in new tab) (Feb. 13). (The put up was in Russian; translation by Google.)
Neither leak poses a hazard to the astronauts aboard the ISS, NASA and Roscosmos officers have mentioned.
A picture shared on Telegram by the Russian space company Roscosmos displaying the situation of a coolant leak and reported meteoroid strike. (Picture credit score: Roscosmos through Telegram)
The Soyuz MS-23 launch delay doubtless will not have an effect on the missions of Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin a lot, if in any respect. The trio was already scheduled to remain aboard the ISS till late September or so, a change made shortly after the MS-22 leak was found.
Initially, the MS-22 crew had been slated to spend a typical six-month stint aboard the orbiting lab. They got here up on MS-22 in September 2022 and had been speculated to fly again dwelling on the automobile subsequent month.
Mike Wall is the creator of “ Out There (opens in new tab) ” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide in regards to the seek for alien life. Comply with him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab) . Comply with us @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) , or on Facebook (opens in new tab) and Instagram (opens in new tab) .
