Roscosmos

FLY – Engineers and astronauts Russia continues to investigate the leak that occurred on the dropship Soyuz MS-22 docked with the International Space Station (ISS). One of the steps taken was the launch of the Soyuz MS-22 propulsion engine on Friday, December 16, 2022.

Russian engineers have ordered Soyuz MS-22 to fire its thrusters at 0308 EST or 0808 GMT, as part of their investigation. The leak was traced to an external cooling loop on the Soyuz spacecraft.

“The tested systems are nominal and Roscosmos evaluation of the Soyuz system. The temperature and humidity inside the Soyuz spacecraft, docked to the Rassvet module, are within acceptable limits,” NASA wrote, quoted by SINDOnews from Space.com page, on Saturday (12/17/2022).

Read also; Russian Soyuz spacecraft damaged by cooling system leak

Earlier that day, Roscosmos via Telegram said the temperature inside the Soyuz had reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit or 30 degrees Celsius, meaning it was still within operational limits. “This is just a slight change in temperature,” wrote Roscosmos.

The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is docked in a Russian port on the Earth-facing side of the ISS. Soyuz MS-22 launched to the ISS in September delivering Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio.

Russian engineers are working to determine the feasibility of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. There is still no official statement as to whether Soyuz MS-22 can still be used to return astronauts to Earth in March 2023 as planned.

Roscosmos has deployed a European-made robotic arm to the Russian Nauka laboratory module on the ISS to inspect the Soyuz capsule and has reported some signs of damage. NASA will also use the Canadian-made Canadarm2 station to survey Soyuz on Sunday, December 18, 2022.

Read also; NASA astronauts return to Earth with Soyuz planes and Russian cosmonauts

The Russian-made Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft suffered a coolant leak on the evening of Wednesday, December 14, 2022, as two cosmonauts were preparing for a spacewalk outside the station. Russia’s space agency Roscosmos canceled that spacewalk and postponed another indefinitely to investigate the cause of the coolant leak.

The leak in the Soyuz MS-22 cooling system seems quite significant because it sprays coolant particles into space quite heavily. So far there is still no definitive explanation as to what caused the leak in the cooling system of Soyuz MS-22.

(wib)