Roskosmos, using American equipment on the ISS, took pictures of the damage to its spacecraft, which is docked to the station.
Roskosmos has published for the first time pictures of the damage to its Soyuz spacecraft, which is currently docked to the ISS. The pictures show a hole in the ship’s radiator, as well as brown spots that look like rust, writes Space.com.
Fresh pictures of the Soyuz were published by the Russian department on social networks. The report says that the photographs taken show external damage to the ship, which is responsible for the coolant leak that occurred on December 14th. Then Roskosmos stated that the hole in the ship was formed due to a collision with a meteorite.
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“A picture of a hole in the radiator of the spacecraft’s thermal control system, taken by a camera on a manipulator, which is installed on the American segment of the ISS,” the caption to the published photo says.
Photo: Roscosmos
The Russian agency is still investigating the cause of the breakdown, so the launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft has been delayed until March 2023. By this time, experts hope to understand the cause of the accident.
Pictures of the Soyuz were published a few days after another coolant leak occurred already on the second ship of the Russian Federation. This time, problems arose with the Progress-82 robotic cargo capsule.
NASA believes that the leaking Soyuz MS-22, which previously delivered American astronaut Frank Rubio and Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin to the ISS, does not pose a danger to the ISS as a whole. But despite this, the United States still made some adjustments to its plans.
The American side recognized the Soyuz MS-22 as unsafe for delivering astronauts back to Earth, except for an emergency on board the ISS. Therefore, in the event of an evacuation home on the Soyuz MS-22, only Russians will fly, the American astronaut will be delivered to Earth by the SpaceX Dragon capsule. NASA considers it risky to send three people inside the Soyuz with a missing supply of coolant.
Roskosmos initially planned that the Soyuz MS-23, which should replace the leaky MS-22, would be launched in February from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. But its launch has been delayed until 2023, although the delay will not greatly affect the work of astronauts, who must spend a longer period of time on the ISS.
“The plan is for the three astronauts to return home from the ISS at the end of September,” said Dina Kontella, head of ISS operations at NASA.
NASA also began talks with SpaceX to add extra protection to the capsules after reports surfaced of a breach in the Russian spacecraft.
