Russia’s space agency Roscosmos is considering sending another Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) to return the crew to Earth sooner than planned, MTI reports. at the space station’s Soyuz in mid-December A coolant leak has been detected.
Roszkoszmosz and NASA officials announced at a news conference Thursday that the investigation into the matter is ongoing. The leak was noticed on December 14 when two astronauts were preparing for a routine spacewalk.
Two Russian cosmonauts arrived at the space station in September with the Soyuz MSZ-22 spacecraft Dmitry PetlinAnd the Sergei Prokopiev a NASA astronaut, Frank Rubio.
The leaking capsule is currently being cooled with air through an open airlock on the space station.
The International Space Station has been operating since 1998, at a distance of 400 km from Earth. Astronauts working on the space station conduct scientific experiments and research that can help the success of future space missions.
Astronauts usually return to Earth in the same spacecraft in which they came to the space station about half a year after their arrival. The Soyuz return is scheduled for the end of March 2023. In the event that the spacecraft is damaged and unavailable, several backup solutions are available, such as sending a new spacecraft to the crew.
