After the Soyuz capsule carrying three crew members began leaking, the Russian space agency stated that it is considering sending an empty spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) in order to bring the crew members back to Earth ahead of schedule.
Both Roscosmos and NASA stated that they did not fully understand how the spacecraft’s external radiator managed to get a small puncture.
They have eliminated the possibility that an asteroid will have an impact.
The breach occurred just as two cosmonauts were getting ready to go on a regular spacewalk.
The manner in which the three crew members will be returned to Earth has not yet been determined; a decision on this matter is still pending.
The most likely course of action would be to dispatch a second Soyuz spacecraft to retrieve them.
Sending them back to Earth in the leaking capsule without the majority of the coolant that controls the temperatures within the crew compartment of the spacecraft is a possibility, although it is not very likely.
In September, the space station was visited by the Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, as well as the NASA astronaut Frank Rubio who was transported there by the vehicle known as MS-22.
But at the beginning of this month, it started shooting coolant into space, and NASA TV caught some amazing photos of white particles streaming out of the capsule-like snowflakes.
According to Joel Montalbano, the manager of NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) programme, the most likely time to launch another Soyuz would be late in the month of February. March was the anticipated month of the crew’s return.
According to NASA, none of the crew members are in any danger.
According to Mr. Montalbano, the space capsule is currently being vented by allowing airflow to be released through an open hatch to the space station.
The International Space Station (ISS) has been in orbit around the Earth for approximately 20 years, since its launch in 1998.
At the station, cosmonauts conduct research and experiments that will be useful for journeys into space in the future.
