Russia to rescue space station crew after capsule leak

A tiny leak – less than 1mm wide – caused the leak on the external cooling system of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule.

It was one of two capsules docked to the ISS capable of bringing crew home.

Russia will send up a new capsule next month to bring back three space station crew members whose original ride home was damaged, officials said.

The two Russians and one American will stay several extra months at the International Space Station as a result of the capsule switch, possibly pushing their mission to close to a year, NASA and Russian space officials told reporters.

Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, and astronaut Frank Rubio were supposed to return in March in the same Soyuz capsule that took them up last September.

But that capsule was hit by a tiny meteoroid on December 14, creating a small hole in the exterior radiator and sending coolant spewing into space.

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Sergei Krikalev, head of human spaceflight for the Russian Space Agency, said barring an emergency at the space station, it would be too dangerous for the crew to use that capsule to return to Earth.

Although Russian engineers believe the capsule could survive reentry and land safely, the cabin temperature could reach the low 40s with high humidity because it couldn’t shed heat generated by a computer and other electronics, noted Krikalev, a former cosmonaut.

The new Soyuz capsule will be launched from Kazakhstan on February 20, a month earlier than planned. No one will be on board; the capsule will fly in automatic mode.

NASA took part in all the discussions and agreed with the plan.