Russia has wrapped up its investigation of two leaky spacecraft and can launch its subsequent Soyuz spacecraft in February in spite of everything.
Russia will now launch the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday (Feb. 23) after asserting days in the past it could delay the occasion into March. The choice was introduced on Telegram (opens in new tab); docking is anticipated about two days later, in accordance with Russian federal space company Roscosmos. The brand new date places the launch of the alternative Soyuz simply two days forward of the launch of the SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the space station.
Soyuz MS-23 will launch uncrewed from the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Thursday at 7:24 p.m. EST (0024 GMT or 3:34 a.m. native time Friday, Feb. 24). NASA will begin carrying protection stay on NASA Television (opens in new tab) roughly 24 minutes beforehand, which we are going to run right here at House.com.
Following its docking with the space station, MS-23 would be the new ride home for the MS-22 crew, which incorporates 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
Russia’s Soyuz points started on Dec. 14 when one other Soyuz, MS-22, sprung a coolant leak and misplaced all of it to space. Roscosmos, the Russian federal space company, deemed the craft solely match to make use of in case of true emergency and tried to speed up the launch of MS-23 by a number of weeks to Feb. 19.
That plan was derailed after a Progress-82 freighter, docked to the ISS since October, skilled its personal coolant leak on Feb. 11 and compelled a brand new investigation. The Progress undocked without incident on Friday (Feb. 17), permitting Roscosmos to assessment new footage taken by the Expedition 69 crew because the cargo ship departed.
Roscosmos has now decided the 2 occasions had been as a result of unrelated micrometeoroid strikes, and selected to reschedule the launch of MS-23 once more to Thursday to supply a safe experience residence for its Soyuz crew as quickly as doable.
On Telegram, Roscosmos mentioned the Progress and Soyuz occasions had been brought on by unrelated meteoroid strikes relatively than inside failures. MS-22 continues to be docked to the ISS as an emergency choice for the crew for a short while longer.
Roscosmos revealed many of the rationale for its Soyuz launch by itself web site, which is blocked in most Western nations within the wake of Russia’s unsanctioned invasion of Ukraine virtually a yr in the past on Feb. 24, 2022.
Roscosmos elected to not instantly improve the shielding on Soyuz or Progress spacecraft on condition that they deem the possibilities of micrometeoroid strike unlikely, in accordance with Russian space fanatic Katya Pavlushchenko, who may view the web site and is fluent in Russian and English. (Future spacecraft variants, nevertheless, may get extra safety, she added.)
“In keeping with the outcomes of the bottom experiment, the opportunity of a radiator hit by space particles is taken into account unlikely, making an allowance for the route of motion and the particle’s pace, in addition to the absence of doable candidates in space particles catalogs,” Pavlushchenko wrote on Twitter (opens in new tab).
Roscosmos had briefly thought of launching the uncrewed Soyuz with a cosmonaut on board, added Pavlushchenko, “however the modification would take too lengthy.” The change in flight schedules means the Soyuz MS-22 crew, which might be assigned to MS-23 when it arrives, might be in space for a yr till September, double their unique manifest of six months.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a e-book about space medication. Observe her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
