Russia is investigating the chance {that a} manufacturing defect prompted two of its spacecraft to spring coolant leaks in a two-month span just lately.
On Dec. 14, 2022, a Soyuz crew-carrying spacecraft docked on the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) misplaced all of its coolant to house, a problem that Russian officers quickly attributed to a probable micrometeoroid strike.
Then, on Feb. 11, a robotic Progress freighter on the ISS sprang a leak of its personal. Roscosmos has tied that concern to an “exterior affect,” (opens in new tab) probably an issue incurred throughout the cargo craft’s October 2022 launch. However that is removed from a last verdict. Certainly, the back-to-back incidents have prompted Russia’s house company Roscosmos to take a more in-depth take a look at the nation’s spacecraft manufacturing processes, in keeping with Joel Montalbano, NASA’s ISS program supervisor.
Associated: Gap in leaky Soyuz spacecraft not brought on by Geminid meteor
“Along with MMOD — micrometeoroid orbital particles — the staff and Roscosmos and Energia, they’re taking a look at manufacturing,” Montalbano mentioned on Saturday night time, throughout a press convention that mentioned the profitable return to Earth of SpaceX’s Crew-5 astronaut mission a number of hours earlier. (Energia is the chief contractor for Russia’s human spaceflight program; the corporate builds each the Soyuz and the Progress.)
“Is there one thing there? Did one thing change within the manufacturing of those autos?” he added. “Which is strictly what we’d do on our aspect, proper? You take a look at all the info you may have, take a look at every thing.”
Roscosmos deemed the leaky Soyuz, generally known as MS-22, unfit to hold its three crewmembers — NASA’s Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin — dwelling to Earth, besides within the case of an emergency evacuation of the ISS. So, final month, Russia launched a alternative Soyuz, MS-23, to the orbiting lab for the three spaceflyers.
Montalbano mentioned NASA is assured within the new Soyuz, however the company will hold its eyes open for any new developments.
“Confidence is nice, however we’re all the time wanting,” he mentioned. “You already know, that is what we do finest within the house program. And that is carried out on each the Roscosmos aspect in addition to the NASA aspect.”
Associated: Russia releases 1st pictures of harm to leaky Soyuz spacecraft (images)
Soyuz MS-22 carried Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin to the ISS in September 2022. The trio had been purported to return to Earth this month, however the leak drama has pushed their homecoming again to September.
That journey will likely be made aboard Soyuz MS-23. MS-22, in the meantime, is scheduled to land later this month, in an uncrewed state. Sadly, the piece of the spacecraft the place the leak occurred will break up throughout reentry to Earth’s ambiance, Montalbano mentioned, so engineers will not get to look at the broken {hardware} up shut.
The identical is true of the leaky Progress: The freighter left the ISS final month and met its fiery finish in our planet’s thick air. (Progress autos are expendable; they don’t seem to be designed to outlive reentry.)
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a e-book in regards to the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab), Fb (opens in new tab)and Instagram (opens in new tab).
