|
Roscosmos and the U.S. space agency NASA had said that a Soyuz
MS-23 ship would be launched on Feb. 20 to bring back Sergey
Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Frank Rubio.
But in a video statement, Roscosmos head Yury Borisov said a
decision had been taken to push back the launch until no later
than March 10 while a team investigates the cause of a pressure
loss in the cooling system of the Progress MS-21 cargo ship,
which is due to undock from the ISS on Feb. 18.
Borisov also showed pictures that American colleagues had taken
with a robot arm of the external damage believed to have caused
a loss of pressure on Dec. 15 in the cooling system of another
module docked to the ISS, Soyuz MS-22.
This craft was originally due to return the three men to Earth
but, owing to the leak, will now be sent back unmanned.
The pictures showed a small hole surrounded by brown stains.
Borisov said it could have been caused by a meteoroid or manmade
space debris.
Roscosmos said the damaged modules were sealed off from the rest
of the station and there continued to be no threat to the safety
of the seven crew on board - three Americans, three Russians and
one Japanese.
Despite tense relations due to the Ukraine war, Russia and the
United States still collaborate closely on the ISS.
The Soyuz craft are used to ferry crew to and from the station,
while the Progress vessels deliver equipment and supplies.
(Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
