A seat liner from the broken Soyuz MS-22 capsule on the Worldwide Area Station has been relocated to Endurance, changing the SpaceX Crew Dragon to a 5-person “lifeboat” ought to the crew be pressured to evacuate within the occasion of an excessive emergency.
The Worldwide Area Station mission administration staff made the choice to relocate the seat liner from Soyuz MS-22 to the Endurance Crew Dragon on January 12, in line with a NASA assertion. The seat liner in query belongs to NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who flew to the ISS on September 21, 2022 aboard the Russian Soyuz craft. That is being performed to “present lifeboat capabilities within the occasion Rubio would want to return to Earth due to an emergency evacuation from the area station,” the area company stated.
An obvious micrometeorite struck the Soyuz in December, damaging its cooling system. Roscosmos deemed the spacecraft as being unsafe for a crew experience again to Earth, forcing the Russian area company and NASA to give you an answer. That resolution is MS-23—an uncrewed substitute Soyuz automobile that received’t launch to the ISS till February 22 on the earliest.
That’s 33 days from now, an uncomfortable size of time throughout which Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin don’t have a protected and dependable technique of returning to Earth, ought to a extreme emergency come up on the ISS. A full evacuation of the orbital outpost has by no means occurred, however that doesn’t imply it may’t occur—therefore the necessity to enhance the crew capability of Endurance, which was initially configured for 4 astronauts: NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA), and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos.
On January 17, NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann labored inside the Endurance crew ship, gathering instruments and performing prep work prematurely of the seat liner relocation. The crew moved Rubio’s seat liner and put in it contained in the Crew Dragon on the next day, in line with NASA. Endurance can now safely accommodate 5 astronauts, however as NASA factors out, the adjustment additionally “permits for elevated crew safety by decreasing the warmth load contained in the MS-22 spacecraft for Prokopyev and Petelin in case of an emergency return to Earth.” Certainly, temperatures contained in the MS-22 crew cabin may fluctuate between 100 and 108 levels Fahrenheit (excessive 30s to low 40s Celsius) throughout reentry, in line with Roscosmos.
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The substitute MS-23 Soyuz is predicted to reach on the ISS in late February, however that doesn’t imply the three-person crew will instantly return to Earth. A substitute crew was purported to fly on MS-23, however that mission now seemingly received’t fly till the autumn of 2023. A consequence of that is that the MS-22 trio may need to remain on the ISS for a whole yr. Dina Contella, ISS program operations integration supervisor, hinted as a lot throughout a information briefing held on Tuesday, saying Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin will “in all probability” return to Earth in September, as reported in Ars Technica
As for the destiny of MS-22, it would return to Earth—sans crew—after MS-23 arrives on the station. As soon as that occurs, Rubio’s seat liner and people belonging to Prokopyev and Petelin (presently inside MS-22) will probably be moved to the newly arrived Soyuz automobile.
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