Soyuz Trouble

[Yazata]

Continuing as I write this. Two Russian cosmonauts were suiting up for a spacewalk, when a significant coolant leak was detected in Soyuz MS-22, docked to the Russian side of the station. The spacewalk was called off and Russian controllers have been trying to figure out where the leak precisely is and what they can do about it.

Everyone on the Space Station is safe and in no danger. But if the Soyuz loses all the ammonia coolant in its life support system, it might be put out of action, and three cosmonauts (rwo Russians and an American) were scheduled to return to Earth in it.

The leak has been happening for two hours now, and the Russians seem unable to shut it off.

https://twitter.com/Space_Station/status...6187402240

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[Yazata]

Well, the Russians were never able to stop the leak in Soyuz MS-22's life support cooling loop. It finally stopped leaking, but only because all the ammonia coolant had been lost into space.

They are still assessing what impact this will have on the Soyuz's ability to return humans to Earth. If it turns out that the Soyuz is unsafe, Russia will have to send up a replacement Soyuz (if they have one available) or SpaceX will have to send up a Crew Dragon (if one is available).

But there already is a Crew Dragon at the Station. The Crew Dragons were originally designed to carry seven astronauts, but nasa didn't like that seating arrangement and went with four seats. But theoretically a Crew Dragon can still carry seven in an emergency I think, by putting three additional under the seats on some kind of padding.

[C C]

I don't like the idea of bad karma. But the alternative of the Russians doing it deliberately draws a blank, as to what the [productive for them] motive would be. So coincidental misfortune it is. When it rains it pours, yata, yata...

[confused2]

The talk of broomsticks was a bit "Kama come and get me if you can." and apparently it can.

[Yazata]

There's going to be a press briefing tomorrow at 11 AM EST (8 AM PST) to discuss the Soyuz coolant leak. They will broadcast the audio on nasa-live.

https://www.nasa.gov/live

The Station's Canadian Arm said "Hold my beer", put down its hockey stick and waved a camera around the Soyuz so that photos could be taken from all angles. Roscosmos has been examining them along with their own data. Apparently temperatures inside the Soyuz remain within acceptable limits. Tomorrow's briefing will discuss the future course of action.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-...leak-probe

[Yazata]

Stuff from the briefing

Leak came from a single hole, that seems to have been caused by micrometeorite hit. Hole is only about 1 mm across, in a small crater less than 1 cm across.

Station crew first discovered the leak by seeing video of the plume. (They had video going in preparation for a Russian spacewalk that was being readied but was then canceled.) Crew alerted Mission Control Moscow which confirmed a pressure drop in the Soyuz coolant system.

They are still undecided whether they can fly crew on the damaged Soyuz. Right now it is being cooled by air from the Space Station module it is docked to, so fact temperature inside is still in acceptable limits is not an indication it will remain acceptable in flight.

They expect to reach a decision on the vehicle's status next week.

If they decide not to fly crew on it, they might still use it to perform an uncrewed reentry, to gather data on what internal conditions are with cooling system out of service.

The next Russian crew rotation is planned for March. They could move that launch up to February and send it uncrewed, if a replacement Soyuz is needed to return crew currently on the Station.

The docked Soyuz and Dragon vehicles serve as Station lifeboats ("safe-havens" they call them). So the Russian side is currently without its lifeboat.

Other than that, things are fine on the Space Station. The Americans are currently performing a spacewalk to install new solar panels sent up on the last Cargo Dragon. (They are flexible and are sent rolled up.)

[Yazata]

Different, and if true more serious, Soyuz Trouble is being reported. This problem could potentially kill Russia's Soyuz human spaceflight program for months to come.

It seems that Kazakhstan has seized the Russian space-launch facility at Baikonur. The reason is reported to be Russian failure to pay 2 billion rubles ($26 million US) in back rent for its use. Since this is currently the only site that launches crewed Soyuz rockets, that creates big problems for crew rotations to the ISS.

https://twitter.com/revishvilig/status/1...8344972288

Russia has two other launch sites that launch Soyuz rockets. One is Plesetsk in the subarctic taiga some 500 miles north of Moscow. This site seems to specialize in military launches and puts up lots of spy satellites into polar orbits. The other cosmodrome is Vostochny in the Russian far east near the Chinese border. This one is intended to become Russia's primary launch site and human spaceflights are planned from here in the future. It's unclear how quickly they could bring human spaceflights at Vostochny forward if they had to.

My guess is that the Russians will work things out with the Kazakhs. After all, the Kazakhs would have little use for Baikonur without Russian rockets to launch from there, and it represents a bit of prestige and a money-maker for them (provided they can make Russia pay the agreed-upon rent).

[Yazata]

The Soyuz with the bad cooling system has left the Space Station for its return to Earth, filled with cargo instead of cosmonauts. I expect the Russian engineers want to learn what temperatures inside are like during reentry without the air conditioner.

Russia has already sent up another empty Soyuz to serve as a replacement ride for the cosmonauts who were scheduled to return to Earth in this one.

Roscosmos photo

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