Soyuz

[Eric Mc]

How did they confirm it was due to a meteor strike?

If it was, it's the first time a manned craft has been damaged in such a way.

[Byker28i]

Eric Mc said:

How did they confirm it was due to a meteor strike?

If it was, it's the first time a manned craft has been damaged in such a way.

Well, according to Roskosmos It was in the Reuters story,
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-launch...

[Eric Mc]

It says MAY have been caused by a meteor strike.

Which means they don't really know.

[Byker28i]

Eric Mc said:

It says MAY have been caused by a meteor strike.

Which means they don't really know.

Updated? Previously said was caused by... (I think)

edit: yup was in this article as well
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2023/0111/1346035-ru...

Now whether thats true or not..

[Eric Mc]

Two cosmonauts conducted a spacewalk a few weeks ago and they might have seen something that indicated a meteor strike - although what you might be actually looking for is not clear. Being a Russian spacecraft, I have always been more inclined to think it was a deteriorating or wrongly installed seal in the coolant system. Or a fatigue failure of a coolant line.

[eharding]

Does this mean that there will be period between the departure of the leaky Soyuz and the arrival of the replacement during which there aren't enough seats to get everyone home if things should really go tits up on the ISS? (arguably, if they're not confident in bringing the failing Soyuz back with people on board are they already in that situation?)

Edited by eharding on Wednesday 11th January 13:49

[Beati Dogu]

Well they can’t really use it safely now anyway. They’re going to send this one, MS-22, back empty, then send up Soyuz MS-23 in February in automatic mode (i.e. no crew). The current crew will get an extended stay on the ISS and come back later in the year.

[jingars]

eharding said:

Does this mean that there will be period between the departure of the leaky Soyuz and the arrival of the replacement during which there aren't enough seats to get everyone home if things should really go tits up on the ISS? (arguably, if they're not confident in bringing the failing Soyuz back with people on board are they already in that situation?)

From SpaceFlight Now article on this subject:

"In the unlikely event of an evacuation, NASA and Roscosmos are working with SpaceX to potentially accommodate at least one of the Soyuz MS-22 crew members on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft docked at the space station. SpaceX’s Dragon Endurance spacecraft delivered NASA astronauts Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina to the station in October on the Crew-5 mission.

The Dragon capsule has four seats, all of which would be filled during an emergency evacuation of the space station. Montalbano said at least one extra crew member, and maybe more, could ride back to Earth on the Dragon spacecraft in an area normally used for cargo storage.

“If we had to evacuate, we will not have extra seats or suits for extra crew members coming home, that’s why you only want to do it in a contingency,” Montalbano said. “We have a plan using hardware from Soyuz to safely secure crew members in the area that the cargo normally returns on Dragon.”

Krikalev said potential overheating on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft during an emergency evacuation could be reduced if it returned to Earth with just one or two crew members, instead of the full complement of three people.

“That’s why we are looking at options that, if we need to use Soyuz in case of emergency, we may reduce the size of the crew in order to reduce the heat load on the crew for landing conditions,” he said."