Dec 23,2022:Russia’s space agency is considering a “rescue” plan to bring home three crew members ahead of schedule from the International Space Station (ISS) after their Soyuz capsule sprang a coolant leak.
Roscosmos and NASA officials said at a news conference on Thursday that they are continuing to investigate how the coolant line of the capsule’s external radiator sustained a tiny puncture last week, just as two cosmonauts were preparing for a routine spacewalk.
No final decision has been made about the precise means by which the three Russian crew members will return to Earth – whether by launching another empty Soyuz to retrieve them or by the seemingly less likely option of sending them home in the leaky capsule without most of its coolant.
Sergei Krikalev, who leads human spaceflight programs at Russia’s Roscosmos, told reporters the damage was being assessed.
If a thermal analysis, which assesses how hot it will get inside the cabin, concludes that the Soyuz MS-22 capsule is unfit for crewed flight, then a scheduled launch of another Soyuz capsule in mid-March from Baikonur Cosmodrome could be moved up and the capsule would be sent to the ISS without crew, he said.
