Bea Beltran Science 02.16.2023 03:Feb AM EST

Launch of Russia’s Uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 Will Be Delayed to March

The new Soyuz known as the MS-22 will be delayed by a few weeks. The spacecraft was supposed to fly into space uncrewed, serving as a replacement for the previous Soyuz that has become unfit to fly back to Earth.

Reasons for the Delay

The original date for the launch of the MS-23 was February 19th, which was to happen from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia. Unfortunately, another Russian spacecraft docked with the ISS, the Progress MS-21, has been found to also have a leak.

The issue lies with the Progress' coolant system. Roscosmos is still not certain what caused the leak, and the agency might have delayed the launch of the MS-23 to make sure the issue is not an issue for all Soyuz and Progress vehicles before it left Earth.

The leak does not pose a danger to the astronauts on the ISS, according to Space, and it's probably not going to affect the Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin missions. The three are already set to stay on the ISS until late September.

Once the Soyuz MS-23 has been sorted out, it will launch into space and autonomously dock itself with the ISS. The crew that was supposed to fly back to Earth on the MS-22, as well as Rubio, will fly back using the relief spacecraft.

The MS-22

The leak on the Russian spacecraft was discovered on December 14th, 2022 resulting in it losing its coolant into space. Roscosmos believes that the damage was caused by a micrometeoroid strike hitting a radiator.

Although micrometeoroids are small pieces of rock or metal and can be as small as a grain of sand, it's still dangerous for spaceflight. As said in The Guardian, micrometeoroids can travel at speeds of up to 17,000mph, which is faster than a bullet.

The discovery of the damage led to crew commander Sergey Prokopyev and flight engineer Dimitri Petelin canceling that night's spacewalk. They planned to move a radiator from one module to another, according to reports.

NASA commentator Rob Navias said that they noticed a visible stream of flakes coming from the aft of the Soyuz. It was near the instrumentation and propulsion module, showing signs of a leak.

The director of crewed space flight programs Sergei Krikalev said that the leak from the Soyuz MS-22 might affect the overall coolant system of the capsule. Although, he also mentioned that the leak was not a threat to the crew.

The MS-21

Coincidentally, the Progress MS-21 had a similar issue. The ship lost pressure in its external cooling system. The former head of space agency Roscosmos' press service Dmitry Strugovets stated that all of the spacecraft's coolant has leaked out.

As pointed out by Ars Technica, coincidence is starting to appear more like a common problem for the two Russian spacecraft. It was unlikely that both were struck by micrometeorites within two months, which might mean that it was a manufacturing defect.

NASA is already assisting Roscosmos in investigating the events that led to the coolant leak of the MS-21 resupply vehicle. Officials are also monitoring all International Space Station systems, according to Tass.