Russia will send up a new capsule next month to bring back three space station crew members whose original ride home was damaged, officials have said.
The two Russians and one American will stay several extra months at the International Space Station as a result of the capsule switch, possibly pushing their mission to close to a year, Nasa and Russian space officials told reporters.
Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, and astronaut Frank Rubio were supposed to return in March in the same Soyuz capsule that took them up last September. But that capsule was hit by a tiny meteoroid on December 14, creating a small hole in the exterior radiator and sending coolant spewing into space.
Sergei Krikalev, head of human spaceflight for the Russian Space Agency, said barring an emergency at the space station, it would be too dangerous for the crew to use that capsule to return to Earth.
Although Russian engineers believe the capsule could survive re-entry and land safely, the cabin temperature could reach the low 40s Celsius with high humidity because it could not shed heat generated by a computer and other electronics, noted Mr Krikalev, a former cosmonaut.
LIVE: NASA and Roscosmos share results from the investigation of the Soyuz MS-22 external coolant leak, and provide an update on @Space_Station operations. https://t.co/eNtppPrRxU
— NASA (@NASA) January 11, 2023
The new Soyuz capsule will be launched from Kazakhstan on February 20, a month earlier than planned.
No one will be on board; the capsule will fly in automatic mode, Russian Space Agency chief Yuri Borisov announced earlier in the day.
The original plan was to launch this new Soyuz in March with two Russians and one American, replacements for the three already up there. This new crew will now have to wait until late summer or autumn to fly when another capsule is ready for them.
Russia will eventually bring back the damaged capsule with only science samples on board.
Nasa took part in all the discussions and agreed with the plan.
“Right now, the crew is safe on board space station,” said Nasa’s space station program manager Joel Montalbano.
“There’s no immediate need for the crew to come home today.”
Back-up plans are in the works, according to Mr Montalbano and Mr Krikalev, in case an emergency forces the seven space station residents to flee before the new Soyuz can be launched — like a fire or decompression.
Nasa is looking at the possibility of adding extra crew to the SpaceX capsule currently docked at the station.
Neither Mr Krikalev nor Mr Montalbano could recall a similar case in which a substitute spacecraft needed to be quickly launched.
Mr Borisov said analysis confirmed the leak was caused by a micrometeoroid, not a piece of spacecraft debris or manufacturing defect. The resulting hole was about one millimetre in size or less than one-tenth of an inch.
Mr Montalbano said the three crew members took the news in stride.
“I may have to find some more ice cream to reward them” on future cargo deliveries, he told reporters.
Four other crew members are currently on the space outpost: Nasa astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada; Russian Anna Kikina and Japan’s Koichi Wakata The four rode up on a SpaceX capsule last October.
