This week, Russia will launch a rescue mission for three astronauts from the International Space Station

 February 21, 2023

The delayed Roscosmos rescue mission, which will send a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station and return three astronauts to Earth, is set to launch Thursday night EDT from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Russia had planned to send an unmanned Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft to the space station on February 14 to replace the docked Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which had taken the astronauts there and was to return them.

However, after being hit by a meteoroid last year, the MS-22 capsule began to leak coolant while docked, making it unsafe to transport the space travellers home.

However, the rescue mission was halted after another Russian spacecraft, the Progress MS-21 cargo ship, which was also docked at the space station, experienced a similar leak.

This raised concerns that the rescue craft might also begin to leak during flight, possibly due to a design flaw.

On September 21, the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft carried US astronaut Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev to the space station.

Instead of returning to Earth with the crew, it is now expected to return to Earth unmanned after the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft has retrieved them.

The delay in the rescue mission was announced by Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov.

"Roscosmos continues to investigate the cause of the depressurization of the Progress MS-21 cargo ship's thermal control system on February 11 at the International Space Station," the space agency said in a Telegram post.

Russian officials stated that they worked with NASA to inspect a possible damage site on the ship's outer surface.

"The American side is now bringing the manipulator to the Progress MS-21, after which a video camera will be used to film and film the ship's instrument-aggregate compartment," Roscosmos said after the supply ship's leak was discovered.

"The materials received will be forwarded to Russian specialists on Earth for further analysis."

Later Tuesday, Roscosmos announced that the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft had passed inspection and that officials would look into the cause of the ship's thermal control system depressurization.

According to Sophie Goguichvili, the Wilson Center think tank's programme associate for science and technology innovation in Washington, D.C., meteoroids will continue to be a problem for Roscosmos and other spaceflight operators.

"This will continue to be a problem, and it will be exacerbated by additional threats brought on by man-made orbital debris, which is frequently generated by the use of anti-satellite weapons," Goguichvili said.

She stated that the United States Space Command is tracking over 47,000 objects in space, which is less than 0.01% of all objects orbiting Earth.

"These objects can travel at incredible speeds, fast enough for a relatively small piece of debris, even a speck of paint, to damage a satellite or a spacecraft," she explained.

"And with each new collision, tens of thousands of pieces of debris are created, exponentially increasing the threat of future collisions [a phenomenon known as the Kessler Syndrome], putting space systems like the ISS and the people inside them in grave danger," Goguichvili explained.

"This is not the first time leaks have occurred on Russian spacecraft," she added.

She claimed that a "slight drop" in cabin pressure at the space station in 2018 was caused by a small hole in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft's habitation compartment.

"After conducting an investigation, Russia blamed NASA astronauts and even claimed that a US crew member "drilled the hole" on purpose. The term "civilization" refers to the state of affairs in which people live.

Because of that incident, Goguichvili said it's "understandable" that NASA and Roscosmos would want to look into it further after a second consecutive coolant leak in a matter of months to ensure that Soyuz MS-23 can return the three astronauts home.

"The likelihood of two leaks occurring only two months apart when such events have not occurred in the 25 years the ISS has been operating appears frankly incredible, making it even more difficult to ignore," Goguichvili said.

Despite any tensions between the two governments on Earth, Goguichvili said that cooperation between the US and Russia aboard the ISS is "quite free of tension," which she attributed largely to the need for astronauts and cosmonauts to operate the research outpost.

"NASA has been working with Roscosmos throughout the investigation and will continue to work with its Commercial Crew Program and Canadian, Japanese, and European partners to refine upcoming flight dates over the next several weeks," the space agency stated in a January statement.

"NASA is also continuing discussions with SpaceX about using the Crew-5 spacecraft to return additional crew in the event of a station emergency prior to the arrival of Soyuz MS-23."

NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 mission, set to launch on Saturday, will transport another crew of astronauts to the space station aboard a Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg will be part of the crew, as will UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

Earlier this month, NASA ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano stated that a SpaceX Dragon capsule could not be used to rescue the astronauts from the Soyuz mission because the Dragon capsule requires a different space suit than Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.

During that news conference, officials added that the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is not repairable from space if parts were sent to the space station because the damage occurred on the end of the spacecraft farthest from the docking port, where there are no handrails or support structures for astronauts.

Though there are concerns about the astronauts' safety during their extended mission at the space station, Montalbano stated in January that "there is no immediate need for the crew to return home today."

However, the current situation violates a safety rule, according to Goguichvili.

"For as long as the ISS has been operational, there has been an unwritten rule that you can only have as many people on board as there are lifeboats to get them off," she explained. "And that is not the case right now."

By: UPI