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Russia launched an unmanned rescue ship Friday for a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts who were stranded in space after their spacecraft sprang a leak while parked at the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin were supposed to return to Earth in March with their Russian MS-22 Soyuz spacecraft but faced an extended stay after the spacecraft sprang a leak in December 2022.
The new, empty replacement capsule, Soyuz MS-23, will rescue the trio who have been aboard the International Space Station. The Soyuz is estimated to arrive at the orbiting lab on Sunday.
The rescue plan was unveiled last month when NASA and Russian space officials said the Soyuz capsule would be sent to the International Space Station to ferry the trio back.
In preparation for the launch of the new Soyuz, the Russian Space Agency delayed its launch and looked for manufacturing defects but no issues were found. The replacement Soyuz was launched predawn on Friday from Kazakhstan with bundles of supplies.
Two top NASA officials had also traveled from the U.S. to observe the launch in person.
To everyone’s relief, the Soyuz capsule safely reached orbit nine minutes after liftoff — “a perfect ride to orbit,” NASA Mission Control’s Rob Navias reported from Houston.
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Damage caused by a micrometeoroid impact
The MS-22 Russian Soyuz spacecraft that transported Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin to the station in September 2022 sprang a leak on Dec. 14.
Coolant from an external coolant loop and radiator on the spacecraft spewed into space for hours just as Prokopyev and Petelin were preparing to conduct a spacewalk. Out of an abundance of caution to prevent any exposure to the leaking substance, the spacewalk was canceled.
After a joint investigation conducted by NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos, the space agencies are confident that the damage was caused by a micrometeoroid impact that resulted in a hole of about one millimeter in diameter in the coolant loop.
While it was determined that the leak posed no immediate threat to the station or crew, it left the MS-22 Soyuz spacecraft incapable of returning the trio of astronauts home safely.
The damaged coolant loop meant that the cabin temperature and humidity could skyrocket during the trip back to Earth, making it too risky to bring the trio back in their damaged Soyuz in March as originally planned.
Emergency getaway plans
While Rubio waits for the new Soyuz capsule, an emergency plan is in place for him to switch to a SpaceX crew capsule that’s docked at the space station. Prokopyev and Petelin remain assigned to their damaged Soyuz if a fast getaway is needed.
Russian engineers had concluded that having one less person on board would hopefully keep the temperature down to a manageable level.
What about the damaged MS-22 Soyuz spacecraft?
Engineers will examine the damaged Soyuz once it returns to Earth with no one aboard by the end of March. Engineers are also looking into a similar issue that occurred in early February on a docked Russian cargo ship.
“The Russians are continuing to take a really close look” at both spacecraft leaks, NASA’s deputy space station program manager Dana Weigel told reporters earlier this week. “They’re looking at everything … to try to understand that.”
The damaged supply ship was filled with trash which cut loose over the weekend, burning up in the atmosphere as was planned.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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