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Russia is gearing up to launch a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station that may substitute a capsule that sprang a coolant leak in December, leaving two cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut and not using a experience house.
Liftoff of the capsule, referred to as the Soyuz MS-23, is anticipated to happen out of Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome launch web site in Kazakhstan on Thursday at 7:24 p.m. ET, which is 5:24 a.m. Friday native time. NASA will air coverage of the occasion starting at 7 p.m. ET Thursday.
The uncrewed spacecraft will spend two days in orbit, maneuvering towards the orbiting laboratory. It’s anticipated to dock with the Poisk module — which is on the area station’s Russian-run portion — simply after eight p.m. ET Saturday.
The Soyuz MS-23 would be the return automobile for cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, all of whom traveled to the area station aboard the Soyuz MS-22 capsule in September.
About two months into the three males’s journey, the MS-22 skilled a coolant leak, leaving the cabin at temperatures deemed unsafe for the crewmates. The Russian area company Roscosmos and NASA rapidly labored to set up plans to ship a replacement automobile. Roscosmos officers stated they’d decided that the leak resulted from a small hole caused by an impact with a micrometeoroid.
Plans to launch the rescue automobile, nonetheless, have been drawn into query when a Russian cargo ship, referred to as Progress, skilled an identical coolant leak after docking with the area station on February 11. Three days later, Roscosmos had stated in a put up on the social media web site Telegram, that it could delay the Soyuz MS-23 launch until at least March whereas the company investigated the reason for the Progress automobile’s coolant leak.
On Tuesday, nonetheless, Roscosmos stated in an up to date Telegram put up that it had decided the reason for the Progress spacecraft leak was “external influences.”
“The Russians are continuing to take a very close look at both the Soyuz and the Progress coolant leaks,” Dana Weigel, the area station’s deputy supervisor for NASA, stated throughout a Wednesday briefing.
“They formed a state commission that is assessing the anomalies,” she added, noting that the group is analyzing potential causes from the time the capsules launched by way of their journey in orbit.
Originally, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara have been anticipated to launch to the area station on March 16 aboard MS-23.
Instead, Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio’s time might be prolonged on the area station till they’ll return to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-23 later this 12 months. That return might occur in September, in accordance to a report from Russia state-run media outlet TASS.
If that timeline holds, the three crewmates may have prolonged their anticipated six-month keep in area to about one 12 months.
When requested concerning the prolonged keep, Joel Montalbano, the area station’s program supervisor for NASA, stated the crew stays in good well being and there’s no cause to expedite their journey house.
The crew is “willing to help wherever we ask,” Montalbano stated throughout a January 11 information convention. “They’re excited to be in space, excited to work and excited to do the research that we do on orbit. So they are ready to go with whatever decision that we give them.”
He added, “I may have to fly some more ice cream to reward them.”
The launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft comes simply days earlier than NASA and SpaceX will launch their Crew-6 mission. Expected to elevate off early Monday morning, Crew-6 will carry NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg in addition to Sultan Alneyadi, an astronaut with the United Arab Emirates, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
Shortly after these 4 arrive on the area station, NASA’s Crew-5 astronauts will return house from their five-month keep there aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. NASA officers stated this week that the coolant leaks skilled on the Soyuz and Progress autos wouldn’t have any influence on the SpaceX missions and that no related points have been found on Crew Dragon autos.