Two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut who arrived at the International Space Station in September for a six-month stay just had their tour of duty extended, as the U.S. space agency said this week the trio’s return trip is being held up while two leaking Soyuz spacecraft are investigated, one of which brought them there in the first place.
As described on NASA’s blog, a launch date for the MS-22′s replacement — an uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 — is currently under review.
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That launch was originally set to occur Feb. 19 or 20 in order to furnish NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscomos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin with a safe capsule that would have brought them back to Earth in March.
Without that, NASA said their homecoming is now set for “later this year.”
A cause of the coolant leaks impacting both the MS-22 and Progress spacecrafts remain under investigation by Roscosmos engineers, NASA said. The latter spacecraft’s coolant loop depressurized within the last week, inflicting no harm to the ISS or those onboard as the hatch between it and the station was locked at the time.
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For now, the space station crew will continue with normal operations and scientific research, NASA said.
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