Russia Ready To Send Displaced Capsules On The ISS Due To Space Waste

Soyuz capsule MS-23 (photo: dock. NASA TV)

JAKARTA - Last week the Russian capsule anchored at the International Space Station (ISS) experienced an incident of leaking cooling liquid, fortunately the crew there did not need evacuation. However, the country's space agency, Roscosmos, will still send a replacement capacule.

This incident began last week when a pair of Russian cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petelin were about to explore outside the station in scheduled space travel.

Later, Russia's mission control on Earth canceled it when they saw the fluid flow and particles coming from the capsule dubbed the Soyuz MS-22 on live video feeds from space.

Roscosmos said the leak may have been caused by a micrometeorite or piece of space junk crashing into one of the external radiator capsules.

The leak caused the temperature in the crew members of the capsule to rise to 30 degrees Celsius. The temperature in the equipment initially jumped to 40 degrees Celsius but dropped to 30 degrees Celsius after ground experts replaced several capsule systems.

Cosmonauts use ventilators in the Russian segment to blow cold air into capsules in order to lower temperatures in the cockpit to a comfortable level. Perform surface checks of capsules with cameras on Canadian-made robotic arms helping to find the location of a cooling liquid leak.

Roscosmos and NASA both said the incident did not harm the station crew. Even so, but a special commission has been set up to determine whether to repatriate two cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to Earth with a damaged Soyuz, or send a replacement capsule. This is claimed to take no less than 45 days.

It said Soyuz's next launch schedule was in March 2023, but could be accelerated if necessary. Roscosmos said at the moment, the Soyuz MS-23 had gone through a series of trials and passed.

Soyuz MS-23 is located in Baikonur and has partially passed the test before the launch scheduled for March," Roscosmos said, referring to the usual Russia-controlled Kazakh launch site, which serves the ISS for cargo and manned launches.

Launching Space, Tuesday, December 20, the cosmonauts of Prokopyev, Petelin, and astronaut Rubio arrived at the ISS last September aboard the Soyuz MS-22, and have served as gifts to the crew. The capsule is scheduled to bring them back to Earth in March as part of a regular rotation.