NASA and the Russian area company Roscosmos are nonetheless investigating the reason for a leak on a spacecraft connected to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS), and are engaged on a plan to securely return three crew members from the station to Earth.
There are at present seven crew members on the ISS, of which three had been scheduled to journey on the Soyuz spacecraft which sprang a leak final week. Video on NASA TV confirmed coolant leaking from the spacecraft in dramatic footage, and it was later confirmed that temperatures inside the Soyuz were rising.
Head of Roscosmos, Yury Borisov, stated in a press briefing that the company had “no fears” concerning the well-being of the ISS crew and that temperatures within the Soyuz craft had now stabilized.
The problem now’s how astronauts on board the ISS can be returned to Earth, because it appears unlikely they’ll use the Soyuz because it has leaked its coolant. One choice is for an additional Soyuz craft to be despatched to the ISS to carry the astronauts residence.
There’s a Soyuz scheduled for launch in March, and this launch might be introduced ahead to February with the spacecraft despatched to the station uncrewed and subsequently obtainable to take the three crew members again to Earth. NASA says that Roscosmos is trying into this risk however has not but confirmed particular plans.
The 2 companies are additionally investigating the reason for the leak. There had been suspicions that the leak might need been attributable to an affect from a meteoroid, because the Earth not too long ago skilled the annual Geminids meteor bathe when the planets passes by means of a discipline of particles left over from an asteroid. Nevertheless, that appears to not have been the case because the leak on the Soyuz was not within the path that the Geminid meteoroids have been touring. NASA and different area companies are nonetheless working to find out what the reason for the leak was, because it may have been a meteoroid affect unrelated to the Geminids or it may have been a special downside altogether.
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