Another Russian spacecraft docked to the space station is leaking

News Summary

  • Russian engineers eventually declared that a micrometeorite had struck the external cooling loop of the spacecraft, and deemed it unsafe to fly home.In January, officials from Roscosmos and NASA said a replacement Soyuz spacecraft will launch to and autonomously dock with the station in February.
  • The spacecraft already has been packed with trash and other material to be removed from the station, and was due to leave next week, burning up in Earth's atmosphere during reentry.However, it seems too early to make such a conclusion for future missions.
  • The leaky Soyuz MS-22 vehicle will make an autonomous return to Earth, bereft of crew, likely in March.It is not clear how directly the leaky Progress and Soyuz spacecraft are related.
  • It seems improbable that a second micrometeorite would have struck as second Russian spacecraft in less than two months.
  • The crew that would have flown in the damaged Soyuz MS-22 vehicle, including Rubio, will instead fly home in this Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft later in 2023.
  • External cameras showed flakes moving away from the Progress vehicle—frozen coolant—similar to that observed with Soyuz MS-22.Roscosmos said Saturday the Progress incident "will have no impact on the future station program."
Enlarge/ A Progress spacecraft is seen departing the space station earlier this month.9 with 0 posters participatingRussias stateowned space corporation, Roscosmos, reported Saturday that a Pro [+3713 chars]