Roscosmos announced that it would launch the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft to the International Space Station on February 24. Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut are due to return from the station. If the technology of the aggressor country does not turn it into a laughing stock again.
Trapped on the ISS
Russia has finally decided when the Soyuz spacecraft will be launched to the International Space Station to return two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut from it. According to representatives of the Roscosmos agency, the launch is scheduled for 2:34 a.m. on February 24.
Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev and American astronaut Frank Rubio arrived at the ISS in September 2022 aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. They were supposed to return on it. However, in December, a coolant leak from the cooling system was detected on it.
Then the Russians took a long time to understand the state of things and the reasons for what was happening and finally recognized the spacecraft as unfit for return. And the cause of the leak was called the ingress of micrometeorite into it. They say — it was very unlucky to meet with a tiny space rock. At the same time, it was decided that an empty spaceship would be sent to the station in February for evacuation.
Is the new Soyuz suitable for return?
However, even before that, the Russian Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft should arrive at the station. But when it happened on February 13, it turned out that there was also a leak from its cooling system. It became clear that the Russians once again have problems not with the forces of nature, but with their own equipment.
Then the announcement of the launch date of Soyuz MS-23 was postponed, because there were grounds to suspect that it was experiencing the same problems.Now it has become known that the operation to evacuate astronauts will begin on February 24. And before that, the cargo spacecraft will be undocked from the station and flooded in the ocean.
In the story of coolant leaks from Russian spacecraft, the adventures themselves are not as important as the circumstances that led to them. The country’s space industry has been degraded for many years, but international partners continue to rely on it. The result of this was the current situation, the hostages of which were not only Russian cosmonauts, but also an American astronaut.
According to phys.org
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