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When there are just a few days left before the departure of the Crew Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-6 mission to the International Space Stationwe continue to talk about Russian ships who have been experiencing problems over the last few months. Roscosmos has released some statements regarding both the Soyuz MS-22 which brought Frank Rubio to the ISS (NASA) and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin both on Progress MS-21 which instead has already returned destroying itself in the atmosphere.
Some new statements contradict earlier reports from preliminary reports. However, new information could arrive when the Soyuz capsule returns to Earth, thus allowing a more accurate study of the damage (which could however be different from that of the Progress). All obviously if the spacecraft manages to land correctly (operation scheduled for March 2023), which is not a given. This is what we know.
The International Space Station and Russian spacecraft: new information
As reported officially from Roscosmos (the site cannot be reached from IPs other than Russian ones) the Soyuz MS-22 capsule it would have been damaged by a micrometeorite from the Geminid swarm, unlike what was reported in the past which excluded this possibility. The option that it had been a manufacturing defect was considered but later discarded. The possibility that space debris caused the hole was also ruled out due to the direction and absence in the debris catalog of anything that could be capable of generating that specific problem.
The Russian manned flight director, Sergey Krikalyovhe added “This is, in fact, an unlikely event because this micrometeoroid struck not only the spacecraft and its radiator, but a pipe on that radiator. […] Examination has confirmed that this unlikely event has occurred. The Americans moved their manipulator arm and positioned it to inspect the place and this robotic arm helped convince us that it was a hole made by a micrometeoroid.”.
As for the Progress MS-21, the hole was measured to be 12 mm in diameter. Also in this case it was thought that a probable cause of the damage was to be attributed to an external impact but with the destruction of the spacecraft no further investigations could be carried out. “According to preliminary data from RSC Energia, Progress MS-21, like Soyuz MS-22 before it, suffered an external impact” was reported in an official statement. Roscosmos also underlined that the area was intact both during the assembly and launch preparation phases.
Despite the problems a Soyuz MS-22 And Progress MS-21, Roscosmos decided not to make any technical upgrades to those cooling systems. This is because it would mean making the spacecraft heavier and obviously spending more funds. Despite everything for Orlyonok, the evolution of the Soyuz to reach the International Space Stationmeasures will be taken in this regard.
With the Soyuz MS-22 which will not carry a crew, aboard Soyuz MS-23 it was thought that at least one cosmonaut could arrive but this would have required additional time, the hypothesis was therefore rejected. Then this spacecraft will travel empty and dock in automatic mode.
The fact that Roscosmos prioritized the Progress MS-22 cargo spacecraft for a launch before Soyuz MS-23 is due to a systems change at the launch pad and wanted to try them first with a cargo spacecraft. Finally, after the Soyuz MS-23 will have reached the International Space Stationwill remain there until the return of Prokopiev, Petelin and Rubio in September 2023 with Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and Loral O’Hara arriving on the ISS with Soyuz MS-24 in the same month for crew change.
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