With the recently discovered leak in the Russian spacecraft, deployment plans of the Soyuz craft of Roscosmos had to inevitably be altered. With that, NASA is looking into whether the Crew Dragon craft of SpaceX can provide an alternative ride home for the International Space Station crew members that were supposed to board the docked and leaky Soyuz craft to earth.
A Leak That Twisted Deployment Plans
According to CNBC, both Roscosmos and NASA are looking into why the puncture was found in the Soyuz MS-22 Spacecraft's external radiator. The craft was supposed to bring two Roscosmos cosmonauts and one US astronaut back to earth in March 2023 after their six-month mission.
However, the leak found last December 14 was seen to empty essential fluid necessary to regulate the temperature of the crew cabin. The hole was around 0.8 millimeters wide and was discovered through an inspection of the craft.
Such an occurrence has led engineers from Moscow to contemplate whether they should deploy a different Soyuz craft to fetch and bring the three men from the ISS back to earth.
NASA, however, is trying to think of alternatives. Such options can serve as contingency plans if Russia cannot send another Soyuz craft or if deploying another capsule would be deemed risky.
Will SpaceX's "Crew Dragon" Fill in the For the Need?
A spokesperson of NASA, Sandra Jones, mentioned how they had asked certain queries to SpaceX regarding the capacity to bring back the crew members using the Dragon if necessary. Jones, however, notes that this is not their primary focus.
Reuters notes, however, that it is not clear whether NASA asked about the capacities of the Crew Dragon, such as if SpaceX can find ways to boost the currently docked Dragon's crew capacity, or if they talked about launching a different capsule altogether to rescue the crew.
The possible involvement of SpaceX shows how NASA is taking extra precautions to ensure that the cosmonauts and astronauts can safely go back to earth. This plan should be amonRussia's contingency strategiesas in case other plans fail.
The Crew Dragon craft of SpaceX has the shape of a gumdrop and can seat four astronauts. The capsule has become central to NASA's human space travel endeavors in low-earth orbit. Fox Weather notes how aside from the Soyuz program of Russia, the Crew Dragon is the only craft docked at the International Space Station that can bring astronauts and cosmonauts to the ISS and back to earth.
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