Soyuz MS-22
NamesISS 68S
Mission typeCrewed mission to ISS
OperatorRoscosmos
COSPAR ID2022-116A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.53879Edit this on Wikidata
Websiteen.roscosmos.ru
Mission duration188 days (planned) 103 days, 3 hours and 20 minutes (in progress)
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftSoyuz MS No.751
Spacecraft typeSoyuz MS
ManufacturerRSC Energia
Crew
Crew size3
Members
CallsignAltai
Start of mission
Launch date21 September 2022, 13:54 UTC [1]
RocketSoyuz-2.1a
Launch siteBaikonur Cosmodrome, Site 31
ContractorProgress Rocket Space Centre
End of mission
Landing date28 March 2023 (planned)
Landing siteKazakh Steppe, Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric orbit
RegimeLow Earth orbit
Inclination51.66°
Docking with ISS
Docking portRassvet nadir
Docking date21 September 2022 17:06 UTC
Time docked103 days and 8 minutes
Expedition 68 Preflight (NHQ202209210001).jpg

(Top-Bottom) Petelin, Rubio and Prokopyev 

Soyuz MS-22 is a Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station with a crew of three launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 21 September 2022. The launch was previously planned for 13 September 2022, but in the provisional flight manifest prepared by Roscosmos by the end of Summer 2020, the launch of Soyuz MS-22 was delayed to 21 September 2022, for a mission length of 188 days.[2] The mission was planned before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, continued international collaboration around the ISS has been thrown into doubt by the ongoing event and related sanctions on Russia.[3]

Crew

The original three-Russian member crew was named in May 2021. American astronaut Francisco Rubio replaced Anna Kikina as a part of the Soyuz-Dragon crew swap system of keeping at least one NASA astronaut and one Roscosmos cosmonaut on each of the crew rotation missions. This ensures both countries have a presence on the station, and the ability to maintain their separate systems if either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles are grounded for an extended period.[4]

Position Crew member
Commander Russia Sergey Prokopyev, Roscosmos
Expedition 67/68
Second spaceflight
Flight Engineer 1 Russia Dmitry Petelin, Roscosmos
Expedition 67/68
First spaceflight
Flight Engineer 2 United States Francisco Rubio, NASA
Expedition 67/68
First spaceflight

Backup crew

Position Crew member
Commander Russia Oleg Kononenko, Roscosmos
Flight Engineer 1 Russia Nikolai Chub, Roscosmos
Flight Engineer 2 United States Loral O'Hara, NASA

Spacecraft

The spacecraft is named in honor of Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who is today considered one of the fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics. Tsiolkovsky's 165th birthday fell on 17 September, a few days before the launch of MS-22.[5]

Cooling loop accident

On 15 December 2022 at 12:45 UTC, a "visible stream of flakes" was observed emanating from the Soyuz spacecraft, concurrent with a loss of pressure in the external radiator cooling loop.[6] A scheduled spacewalk for Petelin and Prokopyev was cancelled while the incident was evaluated.[7]

According to preliminary information, the damage left a 0.8 mm (0.031 in) diameter hole into the external cooler radiator located on the service module of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. The leak in the radiator occurred due to external mechanical damage.[8]

Two working groups have been formed to find the cause of the incident, analyze the technical condition of the ship and develop recommendations for further actions for ground specialists and the cosmonauts.

Due to the conducted tests of the ship's systems, the temperature in the orbital and descent modules in the first days after the incident reached +30°C, and in the service module - +40°C, but in recent days, the temperature in the whole ship stabilized at about +30°C.

In December, 2022, the outer surface of Soyuz MS-22 was examined using the cameras of the ERA and Canadarm 2 manipulator arms. The analysis of the data received on Earth allowed to detect a possible place of damage on the surface of the service module.

If there will be any doubts in the safety of Soyuz MS-22, it will be replaced with Soyuz MS-23 which can be prepared for flight by February 19.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ "Space exploration in 2022". russianspaceweb.com. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  2. ^ "Кикина может побить рекорд пребывания россиянок в космосе" [Kikina can break the record for Russian women in space] (in Russian). RIA Novostidate=26 September 2021. 26 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  3. ^ Witze, Alexandra (11 March 2022). "Russia's invasion of Ukraine is redrawing the geopolitics of space". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-022-00727-x. PMID 35277688. S2CID 247407886. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  4. ^ "Rogozin says Crew Dragon safe for Russian cosmonauts". SpaceNews. 26 October 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  5. ^ "Rubio Primed for Integrated Crew Ops, Cristoforetti, Prokopyev to Command Expedition 68a/b - AmericaSpace". www.americaspace.com. 23 August 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  6. ^ "NASA Provides Update on International Space Station Operations". 15 December 2022. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  7. ^ Lock, Samantha (14 December 2022). "Unexplained leak from Soyuz spacecraft forces Russia to abort ISS spacewalk mission". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  8. ^ "Госкорпорация «Роскосмос»".
  9. ^ Pavlushchenko, Katya [@katlinegrey] (19 December 2022). "A big update on the incident with #SoyuzMS22 appeared on the Roscosmos website: t.co/cJGMOhh9Xr. Quick summary in the thread below. ⤵️ t.co/Gj1SCTG49j" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 19 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022 – via Twitter.
  10. ^ Foust, Jeff (22 December 2022). "Investigation into Soyuz leak continues". Space News. Retrieved 1 January 2023.