NASA announced that they will be adjusting their schedule for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) following an incident with the Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. The head of NASA’s ISS program, Joel Montalbano, stated during a telephone press conference that NASA will be working closely with the commercial crew program, US domestic partners, and the Russian side to lay out flight plans for the next few months. Despite this, the launch of the Crew-6 mission is still scheduled for February as per the original plan.
The incident occurred on December 15, 2022, when a leak was detected in the external loop of the Soyuz MS-22’s thermal control system. A troubleshooting commission was immediately set up to investigate the emergency, and it was determined that the Soyuz MS-22 would need to be returned to Earth in a crewless mode.
The crew will return home on the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, which will launch without a crew on February 20th. The launch of Soyuz MS-23 was initially scheduled for March 16, 2023 with a crew of Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolay Chub, and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara.
It’s worth noting that this incident highlights the reliance of NASA on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for transportation to the ISS, and the importance of the commercial crew program, which aims to end that reliance and provide NASA with a domestic capability for human spaceflight.
NASA has been working with private companies such as SpaceX and Boeing to develop new spacecraft that can safely transport astronauts to and from the ISS. This is a major step towards NASA’s goal of sustainable human presence in low Earth orbit and eventually on the Moon and Mars.
Furthermore, the incident also highlights the need for redundancy and backup plans in spaceflight, as well as the importance of international cooperation in space exploration. The ISS is a multinational effort, and NASA works closely with a number of other space agencies, including the Russian space agency Roscosmos, to ensure the safe and effective operation of the station.
The decision to return the Soyuz MS-22 to Earth in a crewless mode and the launch of Soyuz MS-23 without a crew, are the result of a coordinated effort between NASA and Roscosmos to ensure the safety of the crew and the continuity of operations on the ISS.