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At the end of last year a cooling system failure Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-22 (which had carried two cosmonauts and an astronaut into orbit) had created some concern regarding the safety of re-entry. The crews aboard the International Space Station they were safe but it was not clear whether the spacecraft could have returned correctly with acceptable safety margins for the people on board.
After careful analysis by Roscosmos (with the help of NASA) it was decided that, to avoid further risks, Frank Rubio (NASA), Sergey Prokopyev (Roscosmos) e Dmitry Petelin (Roscosmos) would have used the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft to return to Earth. The latter will reach the ISS in an automated way while also bringing new supplies and scientific experiments. In recent days, however, something even more worrying has happened. There Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft suffered a failure similar to that of Soyuz MS-22 opening up new scenarios.
The Progress MS-21 spacecraft and the International Space Station
According to reports in the past, the damage to the cooling system of the Soyuz MS-22 it would have been tied to a micrometeorite. With the failure of the Progress MS-21 located in a similar area and a similar system (according to the first analyses) the question becomes more complex because it makes the reason for the meteorite more unlikely and instead more probable that of problems related to production.
Initially, a press release linked to a loss of pressure inside the ISS was only issued, later identifying the leak inside the Progress MS-21. Even in that case, however, the extent and location had not been immediately clarified (something that became a little clearer later).
Roscosmos he has declared officially that new analyzes will be conducted thanks to the help of NASA and the Canadarm2 robotic arm. However, the same space agency also writes that “we need to make sure this is not a systematic error, as it could affect subsequent spacecraft”. In short, if indeed the damage to the Progress MS-21 was superimposable to that of Soyuz MS-22, this could mean that Soyuz MS-23 could also be afflicted. There Progress MS-21 could leave the International Space Station on February 18.
Sergey Krikalev (head of the Russian human flight program) he added “unfortunately, the exact point [ndr. dove si è verificata la perdita] it is not visible. We need to think about ways to see what the hole looks like and what might have been the cause, because an external analysis with detailed high-quality images will help narrow down your search for answers.”.
In other words, the spacecraft sent to safely bring a crew back to earth would not be so safe. The launch of Soyuz MS-23 was scheduled for February 20, but would now be postponed to a date to be defined. This could also affect other Soyuz and future Progress. Because of this Roscosmos he wants to make sure of what the situation actually is.
It must also be considered that Russia intends to continue to collaborate on the International Space Station at least until 2028. The technical opinion was released in recent days while the “all clear” definitively by the central government. As specified always recently Vladimir Solovyov he also added that the work on ROSS (Russian Orbital Space Station) is continuing and this year the conceptual design of the station will be presented which should start to take shape from 2027.
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