MADRID, 14 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, has decided to postpone to March the launch of the unmanned Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on a rescue mission to the International Space Station.
The head of Roscosmos, Yury Borisov, spoke about the “anomalous situations that have occurred on the International Space Station in recent months“: a coolant leak from the thermal management system of the Soyuz MS-22 and Progress MS-21 spacecraft.
A commission is working on the Progress MS-21 case. Until the cause of the abnormal situation is determined, “it was decided to postpone the launch of the Soyuz MS-23 in unmanned mode until March 2023,” Roscosmos reported. on his Telegram channel.
December 15 there was a depressurization of the external circuit of the radiator of the thermal management system of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, docked in the Space Station.
The experts concluded that the damaged ship should descend to Earth without a crew. Instead, it was decided to proceed with the launch of the Soyuz MS-23 on February 20, in unmanned mode so that it could be occupied on the return flight by the crew members assigned to the Soyuz MS-22: Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin from Roscosmos. and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio. This mission is now postponed to March.
GAP IN THE FUSELAGE
Roscosmos has released images on February 14 (above) showing a breach in the outer fuselage of the Soyuz MS-22. The presence of this hole demonstrates the cause of what happened: external damage.
At the same time, Roscosmos continues to investigate the cause of the depressurization of the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft thermal management system that occurred on February 11 at the International Space Station.
The US segment’s remote manipulator is scheduled to inspect the possible location of damage on the outer surface of the spacecraft.