The failure of the Progress MS-21 cargo ship does not pose a threat to the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) while it is there, but it is of concern due to a similar incident with the Soyuz MS-22. On February 11, Izvestia was told about this by the head of the Space Policy Institute Ivan Moiseev.
“There is no danger right now. But questions immediately arise here, because this is the second very similar accident: the first was with Soyuz, and the second with Progress. The outline of this part, the heat balance, is all extremely similar. Naturally, there is a suspicion that other ships have the same defect, ”he said.
The expert explained that the commission will deal with the problem at Progress MS-21, and, most likely, there will be a meeting at Roscosmos.
Earlier that day, it became known that the contour of the Progress MS-21 transport cargo ship, which docked to the ISS, was depressurized. Roskosmos assured that the temperature regime and pressure on board are normal, nothing threatens the life and health of the crew, and the cosmonauts are in good health.
Sergei Krikalev, Director of the State Corporation for Manned Space Programs, specified that the coolant had leaked from the thermal control system. He noted that the incident is similar to the one that happened earlier with the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft in December 2022. In connection with the incident, a commission was convened to analyze the causes of the leak.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported that all coolant leaked from the Progress MS-21 cargo ship as a result of a leak.
Earlier, on January 14, Roscosmos reported on the measures taken for the safe return of the crew of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft to the surface of the planet. They clarified: due to an emergency situation with the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, its crew — Sergey Prokopiev, Dmitry Petelin and Francisco Rubio — will return to Earth on the Soyuz MS-23, which will have to dock to the ISS in unmanned mode on February 22 .
Prior to this, on January 11, Krikalev announced that the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft with a damaged radiator would be undocked and landed one to two weeks after the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft arrived at the ISS. Krikalev added that the ship is scheduled to land in a regular area on the territory of Kazakhstan.
The damage to the radiator of the cooling system on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft became known on December 15. A leak has been reported from the cooling unit. Then the work of astronauts on spacewalks was suspended.
