The head of Roscosmos spoke about the details of the damage to the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft

Yury Borisov, Director General of the Roscosmos State Corporation told, as two abnormal situations that have occurred on the International Space Station (ISS) in recent months are being investigated. We are talking about a coolant leak from the thermal control system in the Soyuz MS-22 and Progress MS-21 spacecraft.

“They have the same result: the coolant evaporated, or, more simply, it flew into space, and the thermoregulation regime was violated, which could affect the safety of the astronauts’ flight,” Mr. Borisov said. An emergency commission was created, which systematically and in detail considers all options, although the result of both emergency situations is the same, the reasons may be different.

Damage to the outer skin of the Soyuz-22 was photographed. “The presence of this hole gives reason to believe that it was the cause of external influence that led to the violation of the thermal control system,” the head of the state corporation noted.

In the case of Progress-21, no photographs have yet been taken. “If this violation is really present, then there is an assumption that this can also be an external impact by a meteorite or some kind of space debris,” Yuri Borisov said.

He stressed that nothing threatens the safety of the crew, and an emergency situation occurred after the docking of the Progress-22 transport ship, all hatches were already battened down.

Until the study of the circumstances is completed, the launch of the Soyuz-23 spacecraft in unmanned mode has been postponed until the first decade of March.

In December 2022 at Soyuz MS-22 happened depressurization of the external radiator circuit, February 11 of this year happened depressurization on the Progress MS-21 cargo ship.

Read more in the publication “b FM” “Docking not according to plan”.

Maria Fedotova