It is almost as though the Sandra Bullock/George Clooney sci-fi vehicle — “Gravity“ — of a few years back has come to life. Well, almost. The .gif at right is from NASA / ISS higher-res video footage of the event.
It is not yet known whether the current Soyuz module will be deemed safe for a crewed re-entry. But in the event it is deemed “not safe“, Russia is making plans to fast launch another Soyuz, as a “life-raft” of sorts, here on Christmas Eve 2022.
Here are the details, from Space.com’s fine reporting today:
…It will be a while before backup comes for a space station crew currently depending on a leaky Soyuz to get home. February, to be exact.
Should the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft be deemed unsafe after spouting coolant into space Dec. 14, two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut will need to wait until February for a backup Soyuz to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS), a Russian space official said during a press conference Thursday (Dec. 22).
“Our next crew… was scheduled to fly in the middle of March,” said Sergei Krikalev, head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow, during the livestreamed NASA press conference….
If Russia indeed fast-tracks the next Soyuz to the space station, the damaged MS-22 would come back empty. “Roscosmos would plan to return the current Soyuz on orbit and collect the data so they can use that for future evaluations” Montalbano said….
Now you know — be excellent to one another — and we wish you all peace, and prosperity, in the coming New Year. Thinkin’ only good thoughts, of all of you… be wonderful, and be… adventurous! Grin.
नमस्ते
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