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Russia has set a brand new date for when it’s going to ship a rescue ship to the Worldwide Area Station to retrieve the three astronauts whose Soyuz return craft was compromised in December. The nation’s Roscosmos area company advised AFP on Saturday it’s focusing on a February twenty fourth launch for MS-23, the uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft that’s scheduled to convey again cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, in addition to NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, from the Worldwide Area Station.
Roscosmos delayed the mission final Monday after Progress 82, a provide ship that had been docked with the ISS since final October, started leaking coolant over the weekend. Petelin, Prokopyev and Rubio flew to the area station in September, they usually had been presupposed to return on the identical Soyuz spacecraft that introduced them there. In December, nonetheless, the spacecraft sprung a leak, attributable to an obvious meteoroid strike. One month later, Roscosmos introduced it could ship a second Soyuz craft to retrieve the three astronauts. The timing of the leaks result in some hypothesis {that a} manufacturing problem was at fault for the Soyuz leak, not an errant area rock as Roscosmos had mentioned. Earlier this week, the company shared photos (seen above) exhibiting the placement of the coolant leak and reported micrometeoroid strike.
NASA’s Jeff Arend references the coolant leak on Progress MS-21, which occurred Saturday. Stated no conclusions drawn about its trigger. After the uncrewed automobile undocks tonight it’s going to rotate so astronauts can {photograph} the injury space earlier than Progress enters Earth’s environment.— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) February 17, 2023
On Saturday, Roscosmos mentioned it had fastidiously inspected the rescue ship to make sure it was undamaged and prepared for flight. At some point earlier, Progress 82 separated from the ISS. Per Area Information, video broadcast throughout the undocking process failed to indicate any apparent indicators of harm to the resupply craft. Based on NASA, Progress 82 will provoke a deorbit burn at 10:15PM ET tonight. Offered Roscosmos doesn’t delay MS-23’s launch, the spacecraft will arrive on the ISS two days earlier than Area X’s Crew-6 mission is scheduled to launch on February twenty sixth. That flight will convey two NASA astronauts, a United Arab Emirates astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut to the area station.All merchandise beneficial by Engadget are chosen by our editorial workforce, impartial of our guardian firm. A few of our tales embrace affiliate hyperlinks. In the event you purchase one thing by one among these hyperlinks, we could earn an affiliate fee. All costs are appropriate on the time of publishing.
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