With the investigation of the leak in the Soyuz MS-22 craft complete, both Roscosmos and NASA are tweaking their flight plans for the International Space Station (ISS).
Soyuz Spacecraft Not Viable
SciTechDaily reports that NASA had a joint briefing that was held on January 11. In the meeting, they focused on the investigation led by Roscosmos in order to inform the public about the status of the Soyuz craft as well as how they would be moving forward.
Engineers from Roscosmos assessed the leaked Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft and determined that it was not a viable transportation means for the crew to return. However, they determined how the craft is viable for the crew's return should an emergency across the ISS take place.
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Replacement Soyuz Craft to Rescue Stranded Crew
That being said, Yahoo! News reports that Roscosmos will be deploying an empty Soyuz MS-23 craft to the ISS by February 20. The deployed craft will serve as a replacement for the problematic capsule. With this, cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio will finally get to return to earth after being stranded for a couple of months within the ISS.
While the craft was initially set to launch by March, its launch date was retracted and moved to an earlier period.
Reuters reports how Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov notes that after analyzing the craft's conditions, technical documentation, and thermal conditions, the specialists have concluded that the craft can be deployed without any crew.
That being said, the leaking craft is expected to go back to earth by March. No crew will be boarding it as Roscosmos determined that it is too dangerous to use the craft for traditional crew return.
While temperatures could rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and threaten the passengers and technical equipment, the craft will still transport experiments and cargo.
NASA Plans and Collaborations
Throughout the entire investigation, NASA has been closely working with Roscosmos. The agency will also continue working with the Commercial Crew Program and its Japanese, Canadian, and European partners in order to tune the flight schedules for the coming weeks. NASA is also still continuing its talks with SpaceX about the possibility of having the Crew-5 capsule to transport the additional crew in case an emergency takes place prior to the Soyuz MS-23's arrival.
Meanwhile, both SpaceX and NASA are ready to start the Crew-6 mission after the task involving Soyuz MS-23. NASA is still planning to have a straightforward handover across both the Crew-5 and Crew-6 space missions.
While collaboration continues, especially with the capsule leakage, Yahoo! News also reports how the connections between NASA and Roscosmos have strained due to Russia's invasion on Ukraine. In fact, Russia announced its plans to become independent from the ISS after 2024 in order to work on its very own space station.
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