{"id":11099,"date":"2023-01-11T19:07:47","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T11:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/russia-to-launch-replacement-for-damaged-soyuz-crew-ship-at-space-station\/"},"modified":"2023-01-11T19:07:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T11:07:47","slug":"russia-to-launch-replacement-for-damaged-soyuz-crew-ship-at-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/russia-to-launch-replacement-for-damaged-soyuz-crew-ship-at-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia to launch replacement for damaged Soyuz crew ship at space station"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Russia\u2019s Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft undergoing launch preparations last year at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: Energia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Russian space agency and NASA officials said Wednesday they will accelerate the launch of the next Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, and fly it to the complex next month without anyone on-board to replace a Soyuz crew ferry ship damaged Dec. 14 by a high-speed impact, likely from a tiny particle from deep space.<\/p>\n

The schedule shuffle will mean NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin will remain on the space station several months beyond their planned return to Earth in late March, officials said.<\/p>\n

The three-man Soyuz crew make up part of the Expedition 68 crew on the space station, alongside a crew of four that arrived in October on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of regularly-scheduled crew rotations flown on Russian and U.S. ferry ships.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not calling it a rescue Soyuz,\u201d said Joel Montalbano, NASA\u2019s space station program manager, in a conference call with reporters Wednesday. \u201cRight now, the crew is safe on-board the space station. I\u2019m calling it a replacement Soyuz. This is the next Soyuz that was scheduled to fly in March. It will just fly a little earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roscosmos, Russia\u2019s space agency, said engineers have \u201cexperimentally proven\u201d that a radiator pipe on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was damaged by an impact Dec. 14, creating a hole smaller than 1 millimeter in the cooling loop. Coolant fluid leaked out through the hole over several hours, visible as a cloud of particles around the Soyuz spacecraft docked to the Rassvet module on the Russian section of the space station.<\/p>\n

The leak started as Prokopyev and Petelin were preparing for a spacewalk outside the space station. Russian mission controllers delayed the spacewalk to focus on the problem with the Soyuz spacecraft, and officials launched an investigation into the cause and consequences of the leak.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s space agency said Wednesday that the launch of the next Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23, will move up to Feb. 20 from the original target date of March 16. The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft was supposed to launch with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and NASA astronaut Loral O\u2019Hara to begin a six-month expedition, replacing Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio, who were scheduled to return to Earth on their Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft March 28.<\/p>\n

Under the new plan, the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft will launch without a crew, bumping Kononenko, Chub, and O\u2019Hara to a later Soyuz flight. Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio will return to Earth on the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft later this year, following the launch of the next Soyuz crew on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will probably extend the stay of this crew, Expedition 68, on the station for an extra several months,\u201d said Sergei Krikalev, executive director of human spaceflight programs at Roscosmos. \u201cWhat will be the exact date to send replacements for them is not decided yet, but it\u2019s going to be several months longer mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is already at the launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it will be connected with its Soyuz rocket ahead of liftoff next month.<\/p>\n

Montalbano said ground teams informed the crew of the extension to their mission, which could last until September, the original schedule for the launch of the Soyuz MS-24 mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crews are prepared,\u201d Montalbano said.\u201dThey\u2019re prepared to stay until the September launch date if that\u2019s the case. If they go earlier and that launch date moves up earlier, then they\u2019re prepared to come home earlier \u2026 They are ready to go with whatever decision that we give them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krikalev said medical teams have cleared Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio for a longer stay in space.<\/p>\n

After the launch and docking of the new Soyuz MS-23 ferry ship next month, Russia\u2019s space agency plans to transfer spacesuits, custom seat liners, and emergency equipment from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft over to the replacement vehicle. Then the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft will depart the station some time in March without any crew and head for an automated landing in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft launched Sept. 21 from Baikonur, carrying Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio to the space station for a planned half-year mission. Rubio flew on the Soyuz spacecraft under a new barter agreement between NASA and Roscosmos, which allows U.S. astronauts to continue flying to the station on Russian missions in exchange for the ability for Russian cosmonauts to fly on commercial SpaceX crew capsules under contract to NASA.<\/p>\n

The no-funds-exchanged agreement is designed help ensure there is always at least one NASA astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut on the space station at all times, even if there are delays or groundings of Soyuz or SpaceX missions, to operate systems on the U.S. and Russian segments of the orbiting outpost.<\/p>\n