Crew Rescue Missions Scheduled Following MS-22 Leak

NASA and Roscosmos have officially declared Soyuz MS-22 not safe to fly for crew and a new strategy has been developed with an Official Statement from NASA and Roscosmos Expected on January 11th

4 minute read•Updated 12:01 AM EDT, Mon April 1, 2024

JANUARY 11th UPDATE: "NASA and Roscosmos have officially confirmed Soyuz MS-23 will launch unmanned as a crew rescue mission following the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft being declared not safe for crew for re-entry"

This is a developing story and mission details may change - Stay tuned for more updates

NASA and Roscosmos have officially declared Soyuz MS-22 not safe to fly for crew and a rescue strategy has been developed with an Official Statement from NASA and Roscosmos Expected on January 11th

The Situation

Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA Astronaut Francisco Rubio launched on Soyuz MS-22 on September 21, 2022 at 13:54 UTC from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

On December 15th, 2022 at 12:45 UTC a "visible stream of flakes" was observed emanating from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft at the same time as a loss of pressure was alerted in the external radiator cooling loop. After multiple days of inspection using the stations robotic arms, preliminary information is something left a 0.8mm (0.031in) diameter hole in the external cooler radiator located on the service module of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. Roscosmos believes the leak in the radiator occurred due to external mechanical damage.

With the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft deemed not safe to fly for crew, Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA Astronaut Francisco Rubio are stranded on the ISS. A critical situation as no person is to be on the ISS without a spacecraft they can board to evacuate incase of emergency with the ability to return home should they not be able to return to the ISS.

The Solution

Soyuz MS-22

The damaged Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft will undock from the ISS in an unmanned mode and attempt to return home. Because the thermoregulation system is damaged, re-entry and landing may not be successful.

Soyuz MS-23

Russia's next mission Soyuz MS-23 was scheduled to launch with 3 Russian Cosmonauts in March but teams on the ground have been working around the clock to move the launch up to middle of February. Once ready for launch, a solo Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko will fly the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft to the ISS. This will be the first solo spacecraft mission since 2004 when Brian Binney flew SpaceShipOne on its test flight.

Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin

The 2 Russian Cosmonauts who have been stranded on the ISS due to the Soyuz MS-22 leak will stay on staton with Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko for the duration of the MS-23 mission (6 months) before they return home together.

NASA SpaceX Crew 6

America's next mission NASA SpaceX Crew 6 is scheduled to launch mid February. Crew 6 was to be a crew of 2 NASA Astronauts, 1 UAE Astronaut and 1 Cosmonaut. Due to the situation on the ISS Russian Cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev has been removed from the mission and will await re-assignment. Crew 6 will fly an an empty SpaceX pressure suit for American Astronaut Francisco Rubio to use.

Astronaut Francisco Rubio

American Astronaut Francisco Rubio who has also been stranded on the ISS due to the Soyuz MS-22 leak will stay on station with the NASA SpaceX Crew 6 for the duration of their mission (6 months) before returning home together.

The Impact

Safety is the number one priority in space, that is why Russia is moving Soyuz MS-23 up, and changes are being made to NASA SpaceX Crew 6 but this will have an impact on the future schedule of the ISS.

The Soyuz spacecraft is only able to stay on orbit for 6 months, so with Soyuz MS-23 going up a month early, the entire Russian ISS schedule will now have to shift forward by approx. 1 month as the ISS must always have 1 American and 1 Russian onboard. Soyuz MS-23 can not depart the ISS until Soyuz MS-24 or NASA SpaceX Crew 7 (if Russian Cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev is re-assigned to Crew 7) arrive at the ISS.

Crew 6 was already scheduled to launch in February, so the only major impact to the US program is that an agreement was made to fly a Russian Cosmonaut on Crew 6 and now that Cosmonaut will need to be re-assigned to a future mission.

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