A thriller is unfolding in Earth orbit after a sudden leak on the ISS (International Space Station) endangered the lives of two Russian cosmonauts and one American, and Moscow quickly responded by launching a Soyuz rescue ship.
In practice, we will be able to find out about the fate of the crew tomorrow, and if all goes well, they are expected to return to the ground on Sunday. Russia today launched a rescue ship for two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut whose first attempt to return to Earth failed due to a dangerous leak in the ship while working on the International Space Station.
The initial leak on the first ship, earlier this month, was linked to a micrometeorite that punctured an external radiator, depriving it of coolant.
The launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft to the ISS was planned on March 16, 2023. Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, as well as NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, were supposed to fly on it, under the cross-flight program. However, the failure of the Soyuz MS-22 due to a hole in the thermoregulation system in December 2022 led to a revision of the flight program – it was decided to launch the Soyuz MS-23 into orbit ahead of schedule and without a crew. This is not the first case of Soyuz unmanned flights – in the summer of 2019, the Soyuz MS-14 delivered the Fedor robot to the ISS.
On February 24, 2023, at 03:24 Moscow time, the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle launched from pad No. 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, launching the Soyuz MS-23 unmanned spacecraft into low-Earth orbit. Docking with the Poisk module in autonomous mode should take place at 04:01 on February 26, the ship will deliver to the station 429 kilograms of cargo for the crew and equipment, both for the station and for scientific experiments.
The Soyuz MS-23 flight is expected to end in September 2023, when cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio will return to Earth seven months late.
Given the urgency of this mission, two senior NASA officials traveled from the US to oversee the launch in person. To everyone’s relief, the spacecraft arrived safely in orbit nine minutes after liftoff – “an ideal orbital trajectory,” said Rob Navias of NASA Mission Control in Houston.
The damaged Soyuz spacecraft will return to Earth without passengers by the end of March for engineers to inspect.
More Stories
The number of refusals of Schengen visas to Russians has increased 13 times
Robert Fico “predicted” his assassination attempt a month earlier
Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition, the shooter has been identified (video of the moment of the assassination attempt)