The operation to bring back the astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) has begun.
The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft took off this morning from the Russian Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, and should reach the orbital platform on the 26th. The device, which will replace the original transport of the ISS occupants after the impact of a meteoroid , travels in automatic mode and does not have the devices to be controlled remotely by an operator.
"If it doesn't dock on the first try, it will on the second," explained the head of the station's Russian segment, veteran cosmonaut Vladimir Soloviov.
The mission has been prepared in detail and tests have been carried out to exhaustion.
The Soyuz MS-23 will replace the Soyuz MS-22, which in December suffered a crack "the size of the head of a match", according to Soloviov, due to the impact of an external object at a speed of seven kilometers per second, something less than the 7.6 kilometers per second reached by the ISS.
Progress cargo ships cover their routes automatically and have equipment to be redirected by a teleoperator.
However, the Soyuz do not have the latter system, although it can be deployed at the cost of numerous additional tests.
The return of the crew in their original ship, the Russians Dmitri Petelin and Sergei Prokopiev, and the American Frank Rubio, was dangerous.
After testing, "the temperature control seemed catastrophic," Solovyov says in a video released by the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, where he answered all questions about this mission.
“The temperature was going up fast to 60 and 70 degrees.
As you will understand, there is no reason to bake three people”, added the former cosmonaut, who also highlighted that some sensitive instruments could fail when they exceed 40 or 50 degrees on their return to Earth.
This image shows the damage to the Soyuz MS-22 attached to the ISS. ROSCOSMOS (via REUTERS)
The discovery of that fissure "happened at a terrible and uncomfortable moment," says the head of the Russian part of the ISS.
“We had an exit to the open space.
The cosmonauts had not only put on their space suits, they were in the decompression chamber and it had been depressurized,” recalls Solovyov.
The cameras suddenly showed fluid leaking from the MS-22.
The meteoroid had broken its cooling system.
“We saw from the telemetric information that the pressure, instead of being normal, went down and down, and in four or five minutes it was zero,” Soloviov says.
The astronauts returned to the station, which served as a "refuge", and a large commission was formed on Earth to analyze what happened.
The experiments included a special weapon to simulate the impact of the object against the surface of the ship.
"They were very interesting, we got exactly the same hole that we captured with the recording device that the US kindly gave us," says Soloviov, although all that remained was to determine the origin of the object.
“We are terribly contaminating orbital space.
The last passages of the rockets are abandoned and fly one or two years.
The remains explode and the multi-ton artifacts turn into numerous fragments and splinters,” says the former cosmonaut.
The main test, the well-known test number two, tested all the flight systems of the Soyuz MS-22 on its return to Earth.
According to Soloviov, it was not ideal, but it was worth it as a last resort: "We saw with relief that everything works, that if it had been necessary to mount the crew there in extraordinary conditions, everything would have worked, except for the temperature regulator."
Roscosmos's plan is for the Soyuz MS-22 to remain anchored to the ISS until the end of March as an emergency capsule.
Its replacement, the Soyuz MS-23, carries some 450 kilograms of cargo between equipment and food, and the preparation is not a flash in the pan: first it must be unloaded, and then all the space suits and emergency supplies must be moved there. the MS-22.
Once the exchange is done, the astronauts must check every detail, from the headrests to the counterweights, and pass the test number 2.
Each modification must be checked to the extreme, it is a usual procedure: “Every time the crew changes, the architecture of the station changes.
We train, we record the conclusions, and we train again”, points out Soloviov.
The Soyuz MS-22 will return to Earth with about 200 kilograms of discarded material.
In addition to garbage, it will include a faulty spacesuit.
If the last exit into space was canceled at the last second by the fissure, the previous one was abruptly interrupted by a problem with its battery.
“A spacesuit battery should last at 28 volts for six to eight hours.
After two hours it dropped to 23, then to 21. We had to shout to the crew to run to the decompression chamber," the senior Roscosmos official recounted in the video.
“When we spoke to the manufacturer, he told us there was no way this could happen, and it did.
We are going to return them, ”says Soloviov.
In any case, neither the Soyuz MS-22 nor the Progress MS-21, also damaged by another microscopic object, pose a threat to the integrity of the International Space Station.
The head of his Russian segment explains that the crew "cunningly" set up a system to cool the ship with the help of the refrigerators on the orbital platform through thermal panels and fans.
“When its temperature is two degrees, we sigh with relief, but when it hits the sun it reaches 6.5 degrees.
As a flight chief, I am not comfortable”, admits Soloviov.
While waiting for the arrival of their new spacecraft, the Russian cosmonauts took the opportunity to congratulate their military from the international station.
“Dear friends, today we celebrate Defender of the Fatherland Day!
Therefore we want to congratulate all those who chose the path of protecting the homeland, defending its borders and interests”, said scientist Dmitri Petelin.
"Hundreds of thousands of Russians serve, sometimes hard for their lives, so that we can live and work in peace," said Sergei Prokopiev.
“We are forever proud of you,” he added.
For her part, Anna Kikina addressed "the true heroes" and wished them "happiness, success and that all their wishes come true."
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