On December 15, there was a depressurization of the external circuit of the radiator of the thermal management system of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft.
After an investigation, Roscosmos explained on December 11 that “the version of technical damage to the radiator during manufacturing has not been confirmed”. a meteoroid”. The diameter of the hole is less than 1 millimeter.
A light of hope for the crew
As reported by Roscosmos on its Telegram channel, experts concluded that the damaged ship, Soyuz MS-22, must descend to Earth without a crew. Instead, the Soyuz MS-23 will be launched on February 20, in unmanned mode so that it can be occupied on the return flight by the crew members assigned to the Soyuz MS-22: Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin from Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio
Previously, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara were scheduled to depart for the station on March 16.