An uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is ready for its journey to the Worldwide Area Station, the place it should change a broken Soyuz capsule that sprung a coolant leak this previous December. You’ll be able to catch the motion dwell proper right here.
The pending arrival of Soyuz MS-23 shall be a welcome sight for 2 ISS crew members, who’ve been and not using a dependable lifeboat for months. The aim of this expedited mission is to switch their Soyuz-22 spacecraft, which suffered a coolant leak late final yr.
Blast off from Launch Advanced 31/6 on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is scheduled for Thursday, February 23 at 7:24 p.m. ET. The uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 will launch atop a Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket. NASA’s protection of the launch will begin at 7:00 p.m. ET and be accessible on NASA TV, the NASA app, and through the agency’s website. You’ll be able to watch the motion on the livestream beneath.
Ought to all go as deliberate, the unpiloted Soyuz MS-23 will dock to the area station’s Poisk module at 8:01 p.m. ET on Saturday, February 25. NASA’s protection of the rendezvous and docking will begin at 7:15 p.m. ET on that day.
The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft that delivered Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin to the ISS in September was apparently struck by a micrometeorite in December, rendering it unsafe, each as a spot to take refuge within the occasion of an emergency and as a way to journey again residence. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio arrived with the 2 cosmonauts, however he’s obtained an possibility ought to he require an emergency trip again to Earth, due to the SpaceX Crew Dragon at present docked on the station. That craft was modified final month to accommodate an further passenger.
The plan now could be for the trio to remain aboard the ISS till September, at which era they’ll climb into the MS-23 for the journey again residence. That’s six months longer than supposed, however the authentic plan was for the Soyuz MS-23 to ship cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, together with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, to the ISS on March 16, 2023. It wouldn’t make a lot sense to right away ship Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio again residence, as it might create an pointless staffing void aboard the ISS. As for the leaky Soyuz MS-22 capsule, it’s scheduled to undock from the ISS in March and return to Earth for additional inspections.
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Roscosmos is claiming {that a} micrometeorite pierced a gap within the MS-22’s radiator, inflicting all of its coolant to spill out into area. It’s at present not doable to manage the capsule’s cabin temperature, prompting Roscosmos to deem the spacecraft unsafe. Regardless of all of this, Joel Montalbano, Worldwide Area Station program supervisor at NASA, shunned referring to the MS-23 as a “rescue” Soyuz car in conversation with reporters again in January.
The MS-23 mission was presupposed to launch final week, however a shock second coolant leak, this time with Russia’s Progress 82 freighter, resulted in a slight pause. Roscosmos is as soon as once more blaming an “exterior influence” for the harm, versus a typical manufacturing defect.
Extra: What You Need to Know About NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Mission to the ISS
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