Crisis on the International Space Station: A leak leaves three astronauts without rescuers

Russia and the United States are considering how to return to Earth the three crew members (two Russians and an American) who were left without a ship after the failure of the Soyuz ship in which they arrived at the International Space Station. If an emergency occurred that forced an evacuation of the station, they would not be able to return

In the midst of war in Ukraine, the International Space Station (ISS) – home to astronauts 400 kilometers from Earth – isn’t just a blob for humanity, it’s there The Americans and the Russians continue to cooperate and work smoothly and amicably. And these weeks, NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos are doing it with particular intensity as they try to solve one of the biggest crises they’ve experienced on the International Space Station since it began permanently manned in 2000.

There are currently seven crew members on the station: three American astronauts (from NASA), a Japanese (from the Japanese agency, AXA) and three Russian astronauts (from Roscosmos). Three of them are left without a safe spacecraft to return to Earth. And not only that, during a mission on the International Space Station, the spacecraft is also a lifeline in the event of an emergency that forces you to evacuate it.

On December 14, the Russian ship had a coolant leak Soyuz MS-22Besides forcing the International Space Station to abort the spacewalk that Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin were about to take. The two astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on September 21 with the American Frank Rubio on board the same ship, where a hole with a diameter of 0.8 mm was discovered through which the liquid that serves to maintain the appropriate temperature in the cabin during space travel was discovered. The plan is for them to return to Earth next March, and that is the time for them to present their spacecraft.

An open investigation, which NASA is assisting the Russian space agency Roscosmos, ruled out that the hole in Soyuz was opened by a meteorite impact, as was expected, since the same day as the leak occurred there was a logical day. From meteor showers, the Gemnids. Engineers think it could be caused by a small piece of space junk. Joel Montalbano, head of the International Space Station at NASA, and Sergey Krikalev, director of manned programs for Roscosmos, indicated during the press conference that was offered to explain the incident that, according to the security services, the United States did not endanger any of the seven crew members. Another hypothesis is that the cause of the leak is a malfunction in the ship’s equipment.

The other four crew members now on the International Space Station arrived by ship Dragon crew From SpaceX, so with the craft Soyuz Ineffective – It is not clear if he can sustain the journey back to Earth – If an emergency situation occurs that forces the International Space Station to evacuate, three astronauts will not be able to leave it.

There are three basic options for resolving this crisis. The first and most dangerous is to bring back the astronauts in the leaky spacecraft, if it is determined that the return trip cannot be survived under these conditions. The solution they are considering is to send another spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome Soyuz Replacement, but in the space world things can’t be done overnight. An unscheduled launch would take at least several weeks to get organized, so what is being considered is to advance the next Soyuz liftoff to February (scheduled for mid-March with three crew members), and fly uncrewed to the International Space Station to pick up the three crew members and fly them to the earth. In this case, the damaged Soyuz will return to empty Earth.

within, NASA is considering whether a third option is viable: it has consulted with SpaceX Possibility to solve the problem with the ship the Dragon a spokesman told Reuters. What has not been specified is whether they are considering more astronauts traveling in the same capsule or launching another ship to the International Space Station. One drawback is that spacesuits for flying in this capsule must be custom-made, unlike other NASA or Roscosmos spacesuits, which are more flexible and can be used by astronauts in different sizes.