The Russian Progress MS-21 spacecraft has separated from the International Space Station

In recent days, the first photograph of the damage to the Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft captured thanks to the Canadarm2 robotic arm has been released. Thanks to inspections of this type, it was possible to gather further information on the extent of the problem and its possible causes. As we know that capsule was not the only one to experience problems. The second is the Progress MS-21 (cargo) which was docked at International Space Station until a few hours ago.

An initial analysis carried out over the past few days has not allowed the collection of sufficient data to determine the cause of the problem and if there is actually a relationship with that of the Soyuz MS-22. However, it seems that a serial production problem has been excluded considering that the Soyuz MS-23 capsule, after further analysis, is in the final assembly phase on the space rocket ready for departure. This is what we know.

Progress MS-21 leaves the International Space Station, expected to return

Due to the placement of the Progress MS-21 it was not possible, even through Canadarm2, to get an adequate overview of the damage to the capsule’s cooling system. For this reason, mission control planned to drop the Russian spacecraft from the ISS so as to allow images to be taken from a better point of view (the capsule was rotated 180°). This happened in the past few hours. Roscosmos he has declared “after the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station’s Poisk research module, pictures were taken of its outer surface and no visual damage was found”.

While the spacecraft was still near the International Space Station several photographs of the affected area were captured which will be analyzed later. Two different scenarios then opened up: on the one hand, the spacecraft could have re-docked at the ISS and in particular to the Russian module Prichal or deorbit it with destruction in the Earth’s atmosphere.

After an analysis by the control center the second option was chosen. This operation will be carried out tomorrow (February 19) with a return scheduled for 4:57 (Italian time). Roscosmos said its experts “predict that fragments of the spacecraft that will not burn up in the atmosphere will fall into an unnavigable area in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean at 06:57 Moscow time”. Initially the deorbiting it was scheduled for today but the ability to capture photos and videos delayed the operation.

Soyuz MS-23 undergoing final assembly

Even now the reasons for the two failures, at Soyuz MS-22 and at the Progress MS-21. For the first it was declared that it could be a space debris or a micrometeorite but with the damage also from Progress MS-21 a few weeks later, however, a production problem also arose. Roscosmos however, he added that the two faults could have different characteristics even if they are in similar areas.

Also the launch of Soyuz MS-23 which will bring back to Earth Frank Rubio (NASA) and the cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev (Roscosmos) e Dmitry Petelin (Roscosmos) was initially scheduled around February 20 and then postponed until after March 10 and then perhaps rescheduled by the end of February (perhaps as early as February 24). It will be interesting to see what happens upon the return of the damaged Soyuz MS-22 (which would have been used by the astronauts).