After seven months in space and suffering a leak that left three astronauts trapped on the International Space Station (ISS), the Soyuz MS-22 has returned to Earth. The maneuver was very different from what had originally been planned: instead of being guided by the crew made up of cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, the probe returned autonomously, landing empty. over a vacant area southeast of the city of Jezkazgan, in Kazakhstan, this Tuesday.
It all began last December, when a spectacular uncontrolled refrigerant leak was recorded during a routine spacewalk that caused the cancellation of the return in that capsule of the aforementioned astronauts, who have been without an official return vehicle until a month ago. However, the remains that have returned to Earth will not be of much help in solving the mystery: the area that suffered the leak, the service module, is thought to disintegrate due to friction by the atmosphere, so it has not survived. at reentry.
On the left, the hole in the Soyuz MS-22 (you can see the marks produced by the coolant around the break); on the right, the hole of the Progress MS-21 (no refrigerant leak occurred)
A situation similar to that of the second damaged Russian ship in less than two months, the Progress MS-21 cargo probe, which recorded a similar hole in almost the same place in February. Although at first the possible action of a micrometeorite was pointed out, Roscosmos would be studying a possible manufacturing defect in its ships, as NASA sources revealed. “Two holes as regular as those hardly correspond to micrometeorite marks,” he said for his part for ABC Cesar Arza, responsible for the mission analysis unit of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA)–. Something external has caused the damage, but surely it was on Earth, not in space.
Some 218 kilograms of cargo have returned from the Soyuz, including the results of research experiments and a spacesuit battery that lost charge during a spacewalk by cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveyev last August.
A situation never seen on the ISS
As a consequence of this escape, Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio spent more than two months without an official vehicle that would take them to Earth in an emergency. Although it did not come to light until a new Soyuz docked on the ISS, there was a ‘plan b’ in case of extreme emergency: the two cosmonauts could return on the damaged Soyuz (Roscosmos said that there would be no problem if two people used it back, but that it was not prepared to accommodate three) and the NASA astronaut would occupy a fifth seat in the American Crew Dragon spacecraft (which was fitted out for this ‘extra’ passenger during that time).
Even so, Roscosmos has decided to extend the mission of the three astronauts for another six months: instead of returning last March, as planned, the crew will return next September, completing one year of stay on the ISS ( and having within their reach the record of permanence in it).
“Expedition 69 officially began aboard the station at the time of the undocking of the Soyuz MS-22. Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev is station commander for the crew consisting of NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, Woody Hoburg and Frank Rubio, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonauts Andrey Fedyaev and Dmitri Petelin,” NASA said in a statement.