Names | ISS 68S |
---|---|
Mission type | Crewed mission to ISS |
Operator | Roscosmos |
COSPAR ID | 2022-116A |
SATCAT no. | 53879 |
Mission duration | 187 days, 21 hours and 52 minutes |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Soyuz MS No.751 |
Spacecraft type | Soyuz MS |
Manufacturer | RSC Energia |
Crew | |
Crew size | 3 up 0 down |
Launching | |
Callsign | Altai |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 21 September 2022, 13:54 UTC [1] |
Rocket | Soyuz-2.1a |
Launch site | Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 31 |
Contractor | Progress Rocket Space Centre |
End of mission | |
Landing date | 28 March 2023, 11:46 UTC |
Landing site | Kazakh Steppe, Kazakhstan |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
Regime | Low Earth orbit |
Inclination | 51.66° |
Docking with ISS | |
Docking port | Rassvet nadir |
Docking date | 21 September 2022, 17:06 UTC |
Undocking date | 28 March 2023, 09:57 UTC |
Time docked | 187 days, 16 hours and 51 minutes |
Payload | |
Down Cargo | |
Mass | ~218 kg (481 lb) |
Pressurised | ~218 kg (481 lb) |
(Top-Bottom) Petelin, Rubio and Prokopyev |
Soyuz MS-22 was a Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station with a crew of three launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 21 September 2022. The launch, previously planned for 13 September 2022, was subsequently delayed to 21 September 2022 for a mission length of 188 days. [2]
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 allows continuous space station occupation by US and Russia and keep backup crew scenarios to prevent vehicle either vehicle grounding like Soyuz MS-10 launch failure or to compensate for delays in launch of crew rotation missions of either vehicles like SpaceX Crew-3, that was delayed due to unfavorable launch weather conditions. [3]
Position | Launching Crew member | Landing Crew member |
---|---|---|
Commander | Sergey Prokopyev, Roscosmos Expedition 67/68/69 Second spaceflight | None |
Flight Engineer 1 | Dmitry Petelin, Roscosmos Expedition 67/68/69 First spaceflight | None |
Flight Engineer 2 | Francisco Rubio, NASA Expedition 67/68/69 First spaceflight | None |
Position | Crew member | |
---|---|---|
Commander | Oleg Kononenko, Roscosmos | |
Flight Engineer 1 | Nikolai Chub, Roscosmos | |
Flight Engineer 2 | Loral O'Hara, NASA |
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. [4]
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. [5] A scheduled spacewalk for Petelin and Prokopyev was cancelled while the incident was evaluated. [6]
The leak in the radiator occurred due to a micro-meteorite impact. The damage left a 0.8 mm diameter (0.031 in) hole into the external cooling radiator on the service module. [7]
Two working groups were 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. [8]
According to tests conducted on the ship's systems, the temperature in the orbital and descent modules in the first days after the incident reached 30 °C (86 °F), and in the service module 40 °C (104 °F), but by January 2023, the temperature in the whole ship had stabilized at about 30 °C.
In December 2022, the outer surface of Soyuz MS-22 was examined using the cameras of the European Robotic Arm and Canadarm2. [9] The analysis of the data received on Earth allowed engineers to detect a possible place of damage on the surface of the service module.
In February 2023, days before undocking, Progress MS-21 encountered a similar problem with coolant pressure leak. [10]
As Soyuz MS-22 was unable to perform crew return, it returned uncrewed (like Soyuz 32). MS-23 was launched uncrewed on 24 February 2023 to function as a replacement, bringing back the crew in September 2023 (similar to Soyuz 34). At that point, the crew spent a year in space. The original crew mission of MS-23 was delayed and reassigned to the MS-24 mission. [11] [12] Thus, some dry cargo and equipment weighing 218 kg (481 lb) was brought back on the uncrewed return of Soyuz MS-22. Temperatures probably reached 50 °C (122 °F) on landing, more favourable than the worst emergency crewed landing scenario studied, as reported by the mission control team. More details were published later after analysis. [13]
Until the replacement MS-23 docked to ISS, SpaceX Crew-5 was considered among the options to return the MS-22 crew, in case of emergency. This is due to the fact that SpaceX originally designed the Crew Dragon to host a crew of seven. Accordingly, the International Space Station mission management team decided to move NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio's Soyuz seat liner from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft to Dragon Endurance in order to provide lifeboat capabilities for Rubio. The seat liner was moved on 17 January 2023, with installation and configuration continuing through most of the following day. Seat liner swapping is not new between two Soyuz capsules, but was performed for the first time from Soyuz to Crew Dragon. [14] The change allowed for increased crew protection by reducing the heat load inside the MS-22 spacecraft for cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petelin in the event of an emergency return to Earth. Alongside SpaceX Crew-6 space capsule is designed to bring back crew serving as a emergency evacuation after Crew-5. [15]
After MS-23 arrived at the station on 26 February, Rubio's seat liner was transferred to the new Soyuz on 6 March, and the seat liners for Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin were moved from MS-22 to MS-23 on 2 March ahead of their return in the Soyuz. [14] MS-23 arrived and docked at the ISS on 26 February. [16]
Nauka, also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module-Upgrade or simply Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), is a module of the International Space Station (ISS). The MLM-U is funded by Roscosmos. In the original ISS plans, Nauka was to use the location of the Docking and Storage Module (DSM). Later, the DSM was replaced by the Rassvet module and Nauka was moved from Zarya's nadir port to Zvezda's nadir port.
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Sergey Nikolayevich Ryzhikov, lieutenant colonel of Russian Air Force, is a Russian cosmonaut, selected in 2006. He is a veteran of two long duration space flights to the ISS.
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Anna Yuryevna Kikina is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut, selected in 2012. She is the only female cosmonaut currently in active service at Roscosmos. In June 2020, fellow cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko said that Kikina was expected to fly on a fall 2022 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and perform a spacewalk during the mission. In September 2021, RIA Novosti reported that Kikina had been assigned to the Soyuz MS-22 mission, set to launch on 21 September 2022, for a 188-day mission.
Sergey Valeryevich Prokopyev is a Russian cosmonaut. On June 6, 2018, he launched on his first flight into space aboard Soyuz MS-09 and spent 197 days in space as a flight engineer on Expedition 56/57. On September 21, 2022, he launched aboard Soyuz MS-22 and returned onboard Soyuz MS-23 on September 27, 2023.
Francisco Carlos "Frank" Rubio is an American flight surgeon, US Army lieutenant colonel and helicopter pilot, and NASA astronaut. He holds the American record for the longest spaceflight at 371 days.
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Soyuz MS-18 was a Soyuz spaceflight that was launched on 9 April 2021 at 07:42:41 UTC. It transported three members of the Expedition 64 crew to the International Space Station (ISS). Soyuz MS-18 was the 146th crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The launching crew consisted of a Russian commander, a Russian flight engineer, and an American flight engineer of NASA. The spacecraft returned to Earth on 17 October 2021 following 191 days in space. The flight served as the landing vehicle for the Russian film director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild who launched to the ISS aboard Soyuz MS-19 and spent twelve days in space in order to film a movie, Vyzov.
Soyuz MS-19 was a Soyuz spaceflight which launched on 5 October 2021, at 08:55:02 UTC. It was the 147th flight of a crewed Soyuz spacecraft. The launching crew consisted of Russian commander Anton Shkaplerov, Russian film director Klim Shipenko and Russian actress Yulia Peresild. Shipenko and Peresild spent about twelve days on the International Space Station before returning to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-18, while filming a movie in space, Vyzov. The MS-18 flight launched two crew members of the Expedition 66. Without an American astronaut, this launch marked the first time in more than 21 years that a Soyuz crew only included Russian cosmonauts and travelers and the ship had to be upgraded to be piloted by a single person at launch. This is also the first mission to the ISS with an entirely Russian crew.
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