Roscosmos Still Deciding Next Steps for Soyuz MS-22

Russia’s space agency Roscosmos is still deciding whether the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is safe enough to bring three ISS crew members back to Earth in March. The spacecraft sprang a coolant leak last week and whether safe thermal conditions can be maintained is still being determined. Sergei Krikalev, head of Roscosmos’s human spaceflight program, said decisions are expected next week.

Krikalev and NASA ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano briefed reporters yesterday. A poor audio connection with Krikalev made his comments difficult to understand so NASA released a transcript today, though it is only marginally better than listening to the replay.

Soyuz MS-22 delivered Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to the ISS in September and is intended to bring them home in late March. Before they leave, their replacements are scheduled to arrive on Soyuz MS-23 in mid-March.

That spacecraft is already in testing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Krikalev said that if Soyuz MS-22 is deemed unfit for crews, they can launch Soyuz MS-23 two-to-three weeks earlier without a crew instead. The Prokopyev/Petelin/Rubio crew would use that to return to Earth, while Soyuz MS-22 would come back empty.

No definitive determination has been made to what caused the leak in the exterior coolant loop on December 14 EST (December 15 UTC) just as Prokopyev and Petelin were about to exit the ISS to do a spacewalk. They remained safely inside the airlock as the coolant spewed from the Soyuz docked outside.

Imagery from cameras on the European Robotic Arm on Russia’s Nauka module and Canadarm2 on the U.S. segment show a hole, but what caused it remains unclear. The imagery also shows damage on the surface of the regulator. Krikalev said the surface damage is about 4 millimeters in diameter and the hole is less than 1 mm.

Krikalev and Montalbano said the only thing they’ve ruled out is damage caused by meteor showers happening at that time. They were coming from a different direction. Other possibilities are damage from space debris or a hardware issue. They’re trying to get better imagery to figure out what happened.

Asked if they’re worried about contamination of surfaces on the Soyuz or ISS, Montalbano said no. “The direction of the leak was aft and starboard and it boils off very quickly.”

Roscosmos Director General Yuri Borisov said on Monday that decisions on how to proceed will be made by December 27. Krikalev confirmed they are still looking at that time frame.

NASA TV provides live coverage of all spacewalks and was on air during this event. Commentary indicated that an alarm sounded on the ISS when pressure started dropping in the Soyuz coolant system, but Krikalev said there was no alarm on the station itself. Instead the pressure drop was noticed by mission controllers on the ground who notified the crew.

Montalbano emphasized that NASA and Roscosmos are working closely together to determine what happened and assess the options going forward since an American crew member will be onboard. “We are constantly exchanging data.” Krikalev added that if the Russians have technical discussions on their side, they share the results with NASA.

Krikalev is one of Russia’s most experienced cosmonauts and has worked closely with NASA for decades. He made six spaceflights: two long duration missions on Russia’s Mir space station, two on the U.S. space shuttle, and two long duration missions on the ISS. He was a member of the first ISS crew in November 2000 along with his Russian colleague Yuri Gidzenko and NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd. He returned in 2005. Over his spaceflight career he accumulated 803 days in space.

Despite the grim terrestrial relationships with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, the ISS has remained a haven of cooperation among the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe.

One improvement in July was Russian President Vladimir Putin replacing the vituperative Dmitri Rogozin as head of Roscosmos. The new Director General, Yuri Borisov, along with Krikalev, are clearly trying to mend fences. Borisov chatted with the three Russian cosmonauts — Prokopyev, Petelin and Anna Kikina who is part of the U.S. Crew-5 mission — on ISS yesterday. As translated by Russian space enthuasiast Katya Pavlushchenko, he thanked the U.S. crew members for their help.

Yuri Borisov had an official talk with cosmonauts. He asked about their mood and complimented their good work. He also asked to say hello to the American crew, because “they showed themselves in this situation with dignity, extended us a helping hand”: https://t.co/r3CUJXz1WN pic.twitter.com/C69JhIrnyU

— Katya Pavlushchenko (@katlinegrey) December 20, 2022

Such a comment is in sharp contrast to Rogozin, who went so far as to produce a video showing Russian cosmonauts departing the space station and leaving an American colleague behind.

Rogozin was Putin’s Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the defense and aerospace sectors before being reassigned to head Roscosmos and remains a close ally. Earlier this week he was in Donetsk, a part of Ukraine claimed by Russia, and was injured by shrapnel when the restaurant where he was celebrating his birthday came under attack. Russia’s official news agency TASS reports that Rogozin now heads the Tsar’s Wolves group of military advisors and is hospitalized with a shell fragment that is “impossible to remove,” but expects to return to Donbass in the second half of January.