A leading spaceflight safety expert said that the craft is most likely no longer flightworthy after seeing the footage of the leak. The inhabitants of the International Space Station are at high risk.
A former head of spaceflight safety at the European Space Agency, Tommaso Sgobba is the president of the International Association for the advancement of space safety. The man who worked for years on Europe's human spaceflight program spoke to Space.com about the leak. His conclusions are very bad. The three space travelers who were brought to the space station in September are not going to be able to return to their home in Russia.
For the first time in its history, the International Space Station doesn't have the ability to evacuate all of its inhabitants in the event of a serious incident.
Sgobba told Space.com that the loss of the coolant was a huge one. The Soyuz is no longer able to be used because of the compromised active coolant system. If it is true, we have a problem on the space station. The crew escape system isn't working.
There was a leak at the space station.
The Russian and NASA astronauts are expected to return to Earth on March 28. Also on the station are NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, as well as Japan's Koichi Wakata, and Russia's Anna Kikina. Seven spacefarers is what it is.
Only four people would be able to get to safety if something went wrong with the Soyuz. According to Sgobba, the situation might last weeks to months before a new spaceship could be sent.
Sgobba said that this would be the first time in the space station's history that it didn't have a full lifeboat. There is only one thing that can be done, and that is for Russia to send a replacement. The lack of rescue capability on the space station will be a matter of life and death.
The rescue operation would look like this. Sgobba thinks that Russia would send two spaceships at the same time. There would be a new three-member crew.
One of these capsule would leave with the currently stranded team, while the other would remain at the station as a spare. There is a third seat available for passenger astronauts from other agencies or space tourists in the spaceship.
One of the capsule would have to go to the station with only one person at the helm. Sgobba does not believe that the capsule can make the trip completely empty.
Sgobba doesn't think that Soyuz can dock autonomously. At least one person needs to be on the plane.
It would be difficult to transport the crew members on one of the Crew Dragon capsule. Tailor-made space suits are not required for the Dragon spaceship inhabitants.
According to Sgobba, Russian and NASA suits are made to fit a certain range of human sizes. They have a system of strings that make them better. The suits are tailored to fit perfectly or they wouldn't work.
Russia called off two planned spacewalks, including the one by Prokopyev and Petelin, because of the leak. This decision, along with the flaky appearance of the material spraying from the damaged spaceship, convinced Sgobba that the leaking substance was toxic ammonia, which could pose a risk to crew members.
Sgobba said that the ammonia could be attached to the spacesuit and brought to the space station. Ammonia is very toxic for humans and the heat inside the station would cause them to evaporate.
Sgobba believes that the tank may have been hit by a larger piece of space debris and that a valve malfunction is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556
Sgobba said it could be a leaking fuel port or something similar. Because the space debris environment is what it is, I can imagine that it was a bigger object. The craft should be designed to resist impact by small objects.
The leak has caused a slight temperature change, but there is currently no threat to the crew of the International Space Station.
Despite the fact that the space station's operations aren't affected by the temperature change, it's still not known if the Soyuz capsule can fly. The statement doesn't address the question of whether or not the spaceship is flightworthy.
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