STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION
A Russian Progress supply ship successfully docked with the International Space Station early Saturday but in an unlikely, presumed coincidence, flipside Progress, docked at a variegated port, suffered a sudden loss of coolant similar to an incident that disabled a Soyuz hairdo ship in December.
It was not immediately known if the Progress MS-21/82S spacecraft suffered a malfunction of some sort or if it might have been hit by space trash or a micrometeoroid, like the small particle that ruptured a coolant line on the Soyuz MS-22/68S hairdo ferry ship two months ago.
The Russian space organ Roscosmos revealed a “depressurization” event via the agency’s Telegram account, saying the space station’s seven-member hairdo was in no danger. But the post did not specify which system had been affected. NASA clarified that later in a unenduring conversation with astronaut Frank Rubio aboard the station.
“Hey Frank, just want to make sure we put it out in the unshut in terms of status for 82P,” mission tenancy called. “You guys are probably once enlightened we had that TCS (thermal tenancy system) coolant leak out to space this morning. The leak has stopped but at this point, we believe that it’s completely leaked out.
“So not concerned from having an zippy leak on the Progress right now. From our perspective, the system is in a good, stable configuration. The Russians configured 82P to a unseeded low-power mount, just keeping essential equipment powered.”
The Progress was launched last October and is now loaded with trash and no-longer-needed equipment. It is scheduled to undock from the lab ramified next Friday.
The plan going forward, NASA told Rubio, is to “keep the vehicle as is, so there’s no spare troubleshooting or any deportment that will be washed-up in the short term. We’re still targeting undocking at the end of next week. But of course, plans might transpiration as we gather increasingly information on the issue.”
On December 14, a micrometeoroid punctured a coolant line on the hull of the Soyuz MS-22/68S hairdo ferry ship docked at the forward Rassvet module, permitting the spacecraft’s supply of coolant to spew out into space.
Russian engineers decided the damaged Soyuz, which carried two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut to the station last September, could not be used to bring its hairdo when to Earth in March as originally planned. The snooping was that upper temperatures could possibly forfeiture flight computers and other equipment during re-entry.
Instead, an unpiloted Soyuz is stuff launched February 19 to replace the damaged ship. It is scheduled to dock at the Poisk module on February 21, without the now-damaged Progress is released.
A new Progress, meanwhile, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Thursday delivering nearly 3 tons of supplies and equipment. That spacecraft unprotected up with the space station early Saturday and docked without incident at the aft port of the Russian Zvezda module.
The Progress MS-21/82S issue, presumably unrelated, ripened during or shortly thereafter.
Progress cargo ships do not siphon hairdo members and are not designed to return to Earth. Without delivering supplies, equipment and propellant, they typically are loaded with trash and no-longer-needed equipment and then discarded to shrivel up in the atmosphere.
The Russians have not yet said if the Progress MS-21/82S vehicle will undock next week as planned or whether the incident will wait launch of the replacement Soyuz in order to siphon out spare inspections.
