A leak in a Soyuz capsule docked to the Worldwide Area Station is inflicting temperatures within the spacecraft to rise however just isn’t placing the crew in any hazard, in line with the Russian house company Roscosmos.
The leak occurred on Wednesday this week, with video footage exhibiting what seemed to be coolant leaking out of the Soyuz spacecraft which is docked to the station’s Rassvet module. Roscosmos stated it had been investigating the leak, and in an announcement on Friday it introduced there was a “slight change in temperature” on the Soyuz nevertheless it was “not essential for the operation of the tools and the consolation of the crew.”
NASA shared extra details about the problem, writing that “As a part of the continued analysis and investigation, Roscosmos flight controllers carried out a profitable check of the Soyuz MS-22 thrusters at 3:08 a.m. EST Friday, Dec. 16. The techniques that had been examined had been nominal, and Roscosmos assessments of further Soyuz techniques proceed.” The company went on to say that temperatures inside the Soyuz, even when they’re rising, are “inside acceptable limits.”
Whereas the crew of the ISS are secure, there are considerations that the problem may impact a deliberate flight utilizing the Soyuz which might return three crew members to Earth. Nevertheless, this flight just isn’t scheduled till March so there may be time for one more Soyuz to be despatched to the station to take them house as an alternative.
The difficulty additionally brought about a spacewalk to be cancelled. Two Russian cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, had been getting ready to carry out a spacewalk to put in new photo voltaic arrays to the station when the leak was observed, however this was subsequently cancelled. The spacewalk has now been rescheduled for December 21.
NASA stated that by Thursday, December 15, the “majority of fluid had leaked out” so the leak just isn’t anticipated to worsen, however investigations will proceed.
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