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Tag Archives: ISS
ISS Roundup: 25 year anniversary, spacewalks, cargo arrivals and departures – NASASpaceFlight.com – NASASpaceflight.com
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SpaceX Capsule Refitted to Carry 5 Crew Members in Case of ISS Emergency
A seat liner from the damaged Soyuz MS-22 capsule at the International Space Station has been relocated to Endurance, converting the SpaceX Crew Dragon to a five-person “lifeboat” should the crew be forced to evacuate in the event of an extreme emergency.
The International Space Station mission management team made the decision to relocate the seat liner from Soyuz MS-22 to the Endurance Crew Dragon on January 12, according to a NASA statement. The seat liner in question belongs to NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who flew to the ISS on September 21, 2022 aboard the Russian Soyuz craft. This is being done to “provide lifeboat capabilities in the event Rubio would need to return to Earth because of an emergency evacuation from the space station,” the space agency said.
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An apparent micrometeorite struck the Soyuz in December, damaging its cooling system. Roscosmos deemed the spacecraft as being unsafe for a crew ride back to Earth, forcing the Russian space agency and NASA to come up with a solution. That solution is MS-23—an uncrewed replacement Soyuz vehicle that won’t launch to the ISS until February 22 at the earliest.
That’s 33 days from now, an uncomfortable length of time during which Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin don’t have a safe and reliable means of returning to Earth, should a severe emergency arise on the ISS. A full evacuation of the orbital outpost has never occurred, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen—hence the need to increase the crew capacity of Endurance, which was originally configured for four astronauts: NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos.
On January 17, NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann worked inside of the Endurance crew ship, gathering tools and performing prep work in advance of the seat liner relocation. The crew moved Rubio’s seat liner and installed it inside the Crew Dragon on the following day, according to NASA. Endurance can now safely accommodate five astronauts, but as NASA points out, the adjustment also “allows for increased crew protection by reducing the heat load inside the MS-22 spacecraft for Prokopyev and Petelin in case of an emergency return to Earth.” Indeed, temperatures inside the MS-22 crew cabin could fluctuate between 100 and 108 degrees Fahrenheit (high 30s to low 40s Celsius) during reentry, according to Roscosmos.
The replacement MS-23 Soyuz is expected to arrive at the ISS in late February, but that doesn’t mean the three-person crew will immediately return to Earth. A replacement crew was supposed to fly on MS-23, but that mission now likely won’t fly until the fall of 2023. A consequence of this is that the MS-22 trio might have to stay on the ISS for an entire year. Dina Contella, ISS program operations integration manager, hinted as much during a news briefing held on Tuesday, saying Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin will “probably” return to Earth in September, as reported in Ars Technica
As for the fate of MS-22, it will return to Earth—sans crew—after MS-23 arrives at the station. Once that happens, Rubio’s seat liner and those belonging to Prokopyev and Petelin (currently inside MS-22) will be moved to the newly arrived Soyuz vehicle.
More: Russia Wants to Trade 36 Hijacked Satellites for Soyuz Rocket
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NASA’s Lunar Gateway space station will be so tiny that astronauts won’t be able to stand
Orbiting at 250 miles above the Earth, the International Space Station (ISS) has been integral to a bucket load of research over the past 25 years.
Surrounded by a dizzying number of controls and experiments, occupants get some shut eye in sleeping bags attached to walls that couldn’t be further from luxury if you tried.
But compared to the upcoming Lunar Gateway space station, which will orbit the moon when it is built later this decade, the ISS is decidedly roomy.
That is according to one of the architects behind the design of Gateway, who said the living quarters will be so small that astronauts won’t be able to stand upright inside them.
Cramped: One of the architects behind the design of the new Lunar Gateway space station says the living quarters will be so small that astronauts won’t be able to stand upright inside them. René Waclavicek said they would total about 280 cubic feet (8 cubic metres), making it smaller than not only the International Space Station but even the average UK living room
René Waclavicek, a space architect and design researcher at Austria-based LIQUIFER Space Systems, said the Lunar Gateway living quarters would total about 280 cubic feet (8 cubic metres), making it smaller than not only the ISS but even the average UK living room.
When Gateway is finished it will be about one sixth of the size of the ISS and feature two habitation modules that will force crew members to exist in very close proximity to each other.
The space lab’s quarters will be 6ft wide, 6ft long and 6ft high, compared to a 7.2 x 7.2ft interior on the ISS that even allows astronauts to perform space gymnastics routines.
The average UK living room is around 55 cubic feet (17 metres), or 7.5 x 7.5ft.
‘The International Habitation module will have habitable space of about 8 cubic meters [280 cubic feet] and you will have to share it with three others,’ Waclavicek said at the Czech Space Week conference in Brno last November.
‘In other words, that would be a room 2 by 2 by 2 meters [6.6 by 6.6 by 6.6 feet]. And you are locked in there.
‘There are other rooms but they are not bigger and there are not many of them.’
When Gateway is finished it will be about one sixth of the size of the ISS and feature two habitation modules that will force crew members to exist in very close proximity to each other
Who is involved: How Gateway will look and the space organisations involved in building it
That is according to one of the architects behind the design of Gateway, who said the living quarters will be so small that astronauts won’t be able to stand upright inside them
NASA has said the orbiting laboratory will provide astronauts with a ‘home away from home’ during trips to the moon, and a staging post for lunar landings
NASA has said the orbiting laboratory will provide astronauts with a ‘home away from home’ during trips to the moon, and a staging post for lunar landings.
The lab will have a four person capacity and will see the US space agency work with some existing ISS partners including Europe, Japan and Canada.
Waclavicek has been involved in the design phase of the European-built International Habitation module, or I-Hab.
It is made up of bedrooms and lab space and is one of Gateway’s two habitable areas, along with the Habitation and Logistics Outpost, or HALO, being developed by US company Northrop Grumman.
Waclavicek said designers initially wanted to make larger modules than the ones on the ISS, with more living space associated with them, but this vision had to be scrapped because it was deemed impossible to launch something as big to the moon.
‘We started off in the first phase with a cylinder with outer dimensions similar to what we know from the ISS,’ Waclavicek said.
‘That’s about 4.5 m [15 feet] in diameter and 6 m [20 feet] long. But due to mass restrictions, we had to shrink it down to 3 m [10 feet] in outer dimensions.
‘And that left us with an interior cross section of only 1.2 m by 1.2 m [4 feet by 4 feet].
‘Most of the internal volume is consumed by machinery, so it’s essentially just a corridor, where you have to turn 90 degrees if you want to stretch out.’
He added: ‘[The I-Hab] really is just a cylinder with a hatch on each end and two hatches at the sides and a corridor going through the length axis.
‘Even if you want to pass one another, it’s already quite difficult, you have to interrupt whatever you are doing in the moment to let the other fellow pass by you.’
Waclavicek has been involved in the design phase of the European-built International Habitation module, or I-Hab
The space lab’s quarters will be 6ft wide, 6ft long and 6ft high, compared to 7.2 x 7.2ft on the ISS
!['The International Habitation module will have habitable space of about 8 cubic meters [280 cubic feet] and you will have to share it with three others,' space architect René Waclavicek said](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/01/11/18/66466563-11624059-image-a-41_1673460971480.jpg)
‘The International Habitation module will have habitable space of about 8 cubic meters [280 cubic feet] and you will have to share it with three others,’ space architect René Waclavicek said
Lunar Gateway forms a core part of the Artemis missions, the first of which was successfully completed at the end of last year.
It is hoped that Artemis III, scheduled to launch in 2025, will see NASA put the first woman and next man on the moon.
The US space agency wants to use its massive Space Launch System rocket to blast four astronauts into orbit onboard an Orion crew capsule, which will then dock with Gateway if it is ready.
A separate craft based on Elon Musk’s Starship design, docked with the Gateway, will be there waiting to receive two crew members for the final leg of the journey to the surface of the moon.
The astronauts would spend a week on the moon before boarding Starship to return to lunar orbit, then take Orion back to Earth.
Musk’s company SpaceX is also due to launch the foundational elements of the Gateway to lunar orbit, including the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and the HALO.
Plans: When Gateway is finished it will be about one sixth of the size of the ISS and feature two habitation modules that will force crew members to exist in very close proximity to each other
Although Gateway won’t have a massive viewing window like on the ISS, it will have smaller ones in the fuelling module ESPIRIT.
The reason it can’t have a big one is again because of the technical issues associated with it — ‘glass is very heavy so a window is the first thing that gets canceled’, Waclawicek said.
The team has now begun building a real-size mockup for testing human interaction with the habitat environment.
I-Hab’s journey to the moon is not expected before 2027, although the American HALO module could be launched as early as 2024.
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EXPLAINED: THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SITS 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH
The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.
It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000.
Crews have come mainly from the US and Russia, but the Japanese space agency JAXA and European space agency ESA have also sent astronauts.
The International Space Station has been continuously occupied for more than 20 years and has been expended with multiple new modules added and upgrades to systems
Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.
ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.
The US space agency, NASA, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners, including Europe, Russia and Japan.
So far 244 individuals from 19 countries have visited the station, and among them eight private citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.
There is an ongoing debate about the future of the station beyond 2025, when it is thought some of the original structure will reach ‘end of life’.
Russia, a major partner in the station, plans to launch its own orbital platform around then, with Axiom Space, a private firm, planning to send its own modules for purely commercial use to the station at the same time.
NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are working together to build a space station in orbit around the moon, and Russia and China are working on a similar project, that would also include a base on the surface.
Russia is Launching Mission to Rescue Astronauts From the ISS
Last year, there was some drama aboard the International Space Station as Russian cosmonauts were forced to abandon a spacewalk after a leak was found in a Soyuz capsule connected to the ISS. The leak, it transpired, was caused by a tiny meteoroid that hit the crew’s return ship and put the craft out of action, leaving three crew members stranded aboard, in need of rescue.
The leak aboard Soyuz capsule MS-22, which astronauts use for their return trip to Earth, was discovered in early December. It resulted in an increased cabin temperature and experts deemed the capsule “unfit” to use. With no return craft, a rescue flight is finally being planned to bring the space travelers home.
If you’re anything like me, Aerosmith is probably playing in your head as you imagine NASA assembling a team of the brightest and best to launch two rockets into space simultaneously to save the world and bring these brave heroes home.
Sadly, that isn’t quite what’s happening. Instead, The Guardian reports that Russia will launch a craft into space next month to rescue the stricken astronauts from the ISS. The Guardian reports:
“After deliberations, Roscosmos said it has decided to bring forward a planned March launch of the Soyuz MS-23 to 20 February so it can be used to transport the Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and the US astronaut Francisco Rubio back to Earth.
“If a ‘particularly critical’ situation arose on the ISS in the weeks before then, Roscosmos said, the possibility of using the damaged Soyuz MS-22 to rescue the crew would be considered.”
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Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio are part of a seven-strong crew onboard the ISS. The four other team members will be brought back to Earth on a Space X capsule currently docked with the station. Once the Space X craft leaves the ISS, this will free up the second of two docking stations on the space base. Then, Roscosmos will be able to fly a spare Soyuz craft up to the ISS to dock with the station and bring the crew members home.
The rescue flight, Soyuz MS-23, was originally scheduled to fly a new crew up to the ISS. But, the flight will be empty when it launches into orbit on its rescue mission. Once it docks with the space station, the damaged MS-22 craft will return to Earth empty.
Russia will send a ‘rescue’ spacecraft to the ISS following leak
Russia is prepping a ‘rescue’ mission following a coolant leak on a Soyuz capsule docked with the International Space Station. NASA said in a media briefing that Russia’s Roscosmos agency will send an empty Soyuz to the station on February 20th as a replacement for the damaged spacecraft. The vehicle was originally supposed to launch in March.
The leaking capsule is expected to return to Earth without a crew sometime in March. It will still carry experiments and other cargo. Cosmonauts Dmitriy Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, will now remain in orbit for several months longer rather than departing in March as planned.
The affected craft started spraying particles December 14th. The ISS team quickly noticed that an external radiator cooling loop was to blame, and investigators later determined that a micrometeoroid struck the radiator. Roscosmos soon decided the Soyuz was too dangerous to use for a standard crew return. Temperatures would have climbed past 100F on reentry, threatening both occupants and computer equipment. An in-space repair would be impractical as the procedure would be too difficult, according to the agency’s Sergei Krikalev.
The ISS crew is still prepared to use the broken Soyuz to evacuate in an emergency. However, that’s not ideal when three of the seven people aboard the ISS would likely have to accept elevated risks to come home. A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is also docked, but it normally only takes four occupants. NASA’s ISS program head Joel Montalbano said at the briefing that there had been talks with SpaceX to see if one of the Soyuz passengers could travel aboard the Crew Dragon if necessary.
Relations between NASA and Roscomos are strained following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia said last summer that it would leave the ISS after 2024 to work on its own space station, and the US has been preparing for a possible Russian withdrawal since 2021. However, the capsule leak has effectively forced the two to work closely together — if only briefly.
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Russia Sending Spacecraft To Rescue Crew From ISS After Damaged Soyuz Ruled “Not Viable”
The Soyuz MS-22 crew ship is pictured docked to the Rassvet module. In the background, the Prichal docking module is attached to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. Credit: NASA
International Space Station Configuration on January 9, 2023. Five spaceships are parked at the space station including the Cygnus space freighter, the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance, and Russia’s Soyuz MS-22 crew ship and the Progress 81 and 82 resupply ships. Credit: NASA
Meanwhile, NASA and SpaceX are prepared to launch the Crew-6 mission soon after Soyuz MS-23, incorporating the manifest changes previously mentioned. NASA still plans on having a direct handover between the Crew-5 and Crew-6 missions.
On December 14, 2022, ground teams noticed significant leaking of external coolant from the aft portion of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the Rassvet module on the space station. The Soyuz spacecraft carried Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio into space after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 21.
Spacesuits, eye scans, and cargo transfers were the dominant activities aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday. The seven Expedition 68 crew members also had time for space gardening and scientific hardware maintenance.
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, and Frank Rubio joined each other cleaning cooling loops, checking water, and installing batteries inside a pair of Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), also known as spacesuits, throughout the day. Mann later joined Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (
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Russia to launch mission to rescue stranded ISS crew after meteoroid strike | International Space Station
Moscow will launch a rescue vessel to the International Space Station next month to bring home three crew members who are in effect stuck in orbit after their original capsule was hit by a meteoroid.
The docked Soyuz MS-22 sprang a major leak last month, spraying radiator coolant into space and prompting a pair of cosmonauts to abort a planned spacewalk.
While Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the strike caused no immediate threat to the crew of the space station, it raised concerns about whether everyone on the orbital outpost could return to Earth in an emergency situation.
With the leak resulting in higher cabin temperatures, the MS-22 was deemed unfit, leaving only one operational “escape pod” docked on the ISS – a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. There are seven people onboard the space station, but the SpaceX capsule has only four seats.
After deliberations, Roscosmos said it has decided to bring forward a planned March launch of the Soyuz MS-23 to 20 February so it can be used to transport the Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and the US astronaut Francisco Rubio back to Earth.
If a “particularly critical” situation arose on the ISS in the weeks before then, Roscosmos said, the possibility of using the damaged Soyuz MS-22 to rescue the crew would be considered.
MS-23 was initially planned to take up three crew members but will head up empty as a rescue vessel. The Roscosmos chief, Yuri Borisov, did not say when Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio would return to Earth in the backup Soyuz.
The damaged MS-22 will return without a crew once its replacement arrives, Roscosmos added.
Micrometeoroids, naturally occurring pieces of rock or metal that can be as small as a grain of sand, pose a significant danger to human spaceflight. They hurl around the Earth at about 17,000mph (27,400km/h) – much faster than the speed of a bullet.
Roscosmos said the diameter of the micrometeoroid that hit the docked Soyuz was tiny, creating a hole in the capsule that was only 1mm in diameter. It caused significant damage, with Nasa TV images showing white particles resembling snowflakes streaming out of the rear.
Human-made “space junk” can also damage equipment. In 2021, Russia blew up one of its own satellites in a missile test that created clouds of zooming shrapnel.
Space has remained a rare area of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The ISS was launched in stages beginning in 1998 at a time of increased US-Russia cooperation nearly a decade after the end of the cold war. The ageing space station is destined to be “de-orbited” in 2031, with a planned descent into a remote point in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, a new space race between the US and China is heating up. In 2021, Beijing’s space programme established its first Earth-orbiting crewed space station. The 70-tonne Tiangong, meaning “heavenly palace”, is expected to operate for at least 10 years.
Russia to rescue ISS crew on backup rocket after capsule leak
Jan 11 (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday it would launch another Soyuz spacecraft next month to bring home two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut from the International Space Station after their original capsule was struck by a micrometeoroid and started leaking last month.
The leak came from a tiny puncture – less than 1 millimetre wide – on the external cooling system of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule, one of two return capsules docked to the ISS that can bring crew members home.
Russia said a new capsule, Soyuz MS-23, would be sent up on Feb. 20 to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22, which will be brought back to Earth empty.
“Having analysed the condition of the spacecraft, thermal calculations and technical documentation, it has been concluded that the MS-22 must be landed without a crew on board,” said Yuri Borisov, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and U.S. astronaut Francisco Rubio had been due to end their mission in March but will now extend it by a few more months and return aboard the MS-23.
“They are ready to go with whatever decision we give them,” Joel Montalbano, NASA’s ISS program manager, told a news conference. “I may have to fly some more ice cream to reward them,” he added.
“SPACE IS NOT A SAFE PLACE”
The MS-23, which had been due to take up three new crew in March, will instead depart from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as an unmanned rescue mission next month.
If there is an emergency in the meantime, Roscosmos said it will look at whether the MS-22 spacecraft can be used to rescue the crew. In this scenario, temperatures in the capsule could reach unhealthy levels of 30-40 degrees Celsius (86-104 degrees Fahrenheit).
“In case of an emergency, when the crew will have a real threat to life on the station, then probably the danger of staying on the station can be higher than going down in an unhealthy Soyuz,” Sergei Krikalev, Russia’s chief of crewed space programs, said.
The incident has disrupted Russia’s ISS activities, forcing its cosmonauts to call off spacewalks as officials focus on the leaky capsule, which serves as a lifeboat for the crew.
The leak is also a problem for NASA. The U.S. agency said last month it was exploring whether SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft could offer an alternative ride home for some ISS crew members, in case Russia was unable to launch another Soyuz.
Both NASA and Roscosmos believe the leak was caused by a micrometeoroid – a small particle of space rock – hitting the capsule at high velocity.
“Space is not a safe place, and not a safe environment. We have meteorites, we have a vacuum and we have a high temperature and we have complicated hardware that can fail,” Krikalev said.
“Now we are facing one of the scenarios … we are prepared for this situation.”
Reporting by Caleb Davis and Joey Roulette, editing by Mark Trevelyan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Russia to launch Soyuz rocket to bring back cosmonauts from ISS after leak
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Wednesday it would launch another Soyuz rocket on Feb. 20 to bring home two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut from the International Space Station after their original capsule sprang a coolant leak last month.
The leak stemmed from a tiny puncture in the external radiator of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule which is currently docked to the ISS and had been due to bring the three crew members back to Earth in March.
“The expedition of Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Francisco Rubio to the ISS is being extended. They will return to Earth on Soyuz MS-23,” Roskosmos said.
“The launch of the Soyuz MS-23 will be on Feb. 20, 2023 in an unmanned mode,” Roskosmos said.
The MS-23 launch had earlier been planned for mid-March. Soyuz MS-22 will descend to Earth without a crew, it said.
Roskosmos said damage to the radiator pipeline occurred as a result of a meteorite.
“The diameter of the hole is less than 1 millimeter,” it said.
The incident has disrupted Russia’s ISS activities, forcing a suspension of spacewalks by its cosmonauts as officials focus on the leaky capsule, which serves as a lifeboat for the crew.
The leak is also a problem for NASA. The U.S. agency said last month it was exploring whether SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft could offer an alternative ride home for some ISS crew members, in case Russia was unable to launch another Soyuz.
(Reporting by Reuters. Writing by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Gareth Jones)