The two cosmonauts, Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Petelin, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut, Frank Rubio, may be evacuated from the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, in the one that was detected last December a leak, and from the American Crew Dragon.
According to a news agency, the ship is scheduled to take off from the Kazakh steppe on February 20 and dock with the ISS in automatic mode in order to ensure the safe return of the crew.
Through a statement they specified: «Roscosmos and the space agencies of the ISS partner countries have taken measures to guarantee the safe return of the station crew to Earth in the event of an accident before the arrival of the Soyuz spacecraft. MS-23”.
They stated that this decision was adopted since the descent of two astronauts instead of three will be safer, because it will help reduce the temperature and humidity in the Soyuz MS-22.
Similarly, the Roscosmos authorities specified that if there was no emergency situation before the arrival of the Soyuz MS-23, the three astronauts, including Rubio, will return to Earth as planned in that second Russian spacecraft.
It should be remembered that the rescue of the crew members of the Eurasian and North American nation of the ISS occurred after the crew members of the Russian segment reported to the Ground Control Center in December that the pressure had dropped in the cooling system in a Soyuz MS -22, which pointed to a leak.
The damage, confirmed visually later, occurred to the hull of the equipment and propellant segment of the Soyuz.
VTV/WIL/CP