News
Russian Rescue Ship Launched Into Space After Dangerous Leaks
(CTN NEWS) – Two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut were in need of rescue when their original flight home developed a hazardous leak while parked at the International Space Station. On Friday, Russia deployed a rescue ship to transport them.
On Sunday, the fresh, empty Soyuz capsule ought to touch down at the planetary lab.
The December capsule leak was attributed to a micrometeorite that pierced an exterior radiator and drained its coolant. Earlier this month, it seemed to occur once more, this time on a parked Russian cargo ship.
Each spacecraft had a small hole visible from the camera.
The new Soyuz launch was postponed while the Russian Space Agency checked potential production flaws.
The agency continued with the Friday morning launch of the capsule from Kazakhstan with packages of supplies strapped onto the three seats after no problems were discovered.
In this handout photo released by Roscosmos State Space Corporation, the new, empty Soyuz MS-23 capsule blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (Ivan Timoshenko/Roscosmos State Space Corporation via AP)
Russian Rescue Ship Launched Into Space
Two senior NASA officials flew from the United States to witness the launch in person due to the urgent necessity for this capsule.
To everyone’s relief, the capsule successfully entered orbit nine minutes after liftoff. Rob Navias of NASA Mission Control in Houston described the journey as “a fantastic ride to orbit.”
It was decided by authorities that it would be too unsafe to return NASA’s Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev, and Dmitri Petelin on their damaged Soyuz next month as originally intended.
Without coolant, the temperature in the cabin would rise throughout the return trip to Earth, perhaps harming computers and other equipment and exposing the crew in protective clothing to extreme heat.
Emergency preparations call for Rubio to transition to a SpaceX crew capsule that is docked at the space station until the new Soyuz arrives.
In the unusual event that a quick escape is required, Prokopyev and Petelin are still assigned to their damaged Soyuz.
In this handout photo taken from a video released by Roscosmos State Space Corporation, the new, empty Soyuz MS-23 capsule blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (Roscosmos State Space Corporation via AP)
Russian engineers decided that one fewer passenger would help to keep the temperature at a potentially acceptable level.
By the end of March, the damaged Soyuz will land on Earth without anyone on board so that engineers may inspect it.
The three guys set off on this Soyuz in September of last year on a mission that was supposed to last six months.
Now that a new capsule is prepared for its crew replacements’ September launch, they will remain in space for a full year.
Their Soyuz was the one that had just taken out without any passengers.
RELATED CTN NEWS:
141 Nations at UN Condemn Russia Over Invasion of Ukraine
