NASA could flip to its industrial associate SpaceX to move three astronauts again to Earth after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft suffered a coolant leak in mid-December.
In a weblog put up revealed on Friday, NASA mentioned that it “reached out to SpaceX about its functionality to return further crew members aboard Dragon if wanted in an emergency.” In the mean time, NASA is investigating whether or not or not the Soyuz spacecraft would nonetheless be able to carrying astronauts on the journey again from the Worldwide House Station, the area company added.
The Soyuz spacecraft transported NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin to the ISS in September 2022. On December 14, the spacecraft started leaking coolant into low Earth orbit whereas hooked up to the ISS. The coolant leak lasted for 3 hours and was captured on a livestream by NASA TV. The astronauts on board the area station weren’t harmed, however the destiny of the three astronauts that have been meant to make use of the Soyuz spacecraft to return to Earth stays up within the air.
“NASA and Roscosmos are persevering with to conduct quite a lot of engineering opinions and are consulting with different worldwide companions about strategies for safely bringing the Soyuz crew residence for each regular and contingency eventualities,” NASA wrote within the weblog put up. The 2 area businesses are anticipated to make a ultimate resolution concerning the viability of the spacecraft this month.
Roscosmos hoped to decide by December 27, however the area company introduced that it wanted extra time to judge the flight capabilities of the Soyuz spacecraft. The precise cause behind the leak has not been introduced, though it could have been attributable to a micrometeorite or a tiny piece of area junk that left an 0.8-millimeter-wide gap within the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft.
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Rubio was the primary NASA astronaut to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket since April 2021, the results of a latest seat-swap settlement between the 2 area businesses. The association stipulated {that a} U.S. astronaut would trip aboard a Soyuz capsule in change for a Russian cosmonaut boarding a SpaceX Crew Dragon for the very first time. Ought to the Soyuz spacecraft be deemed unusable for a crew return, NASA could name on SpaceX to ship a Crew Dragon to select up the three astronauts from the ISS and produce them again to Earth. The astronauts are scheduled to return within the spring after having spent six months on board the ISS.
Extra: Russian Cosmonaut Pressured to Abandon Spacewalk As a consequence of Spacesuit Energy Malfunction
