MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. The launch of the Progress MS-22 cargo spacecraft may be postponed until spring, should it be necessary to speed up the Soyuz MS-23 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), a source in the space industry told TASS Tuesday.
"If the Soyuz MS-23 launch is rescheduled for February, the Progress MS-22 will fly to the ISS in early March," the source said.
Meanwhile, the Roscosmos press office told TASS that no decision has been made yet.
"A decision has not been made yet, because there is no decision on the Soyuz MS-23 launch date yet," the press office said.
Previously, Roscosmos CEO Yuri Borisov told reporters that the reserve spacecraft - the Soyuz MS-23 - that will bring back the cosmonauts from the ISS will be ready by February 19.
Roscosmos explained that space industry specialists refer to a spacecraft as a reserve if it undergoes partial preparation at a cosmodrome and can be launched 45 days after an emergency at the ISS.
On December 15, a depressurization in the external temperature regulation system of the Soyuz manned spacecraft was registered during preparations for a spacewalk. The next day, the spacecraft was subjected to a series of system tests that indicated that there were no other malfunctions.
The spacecraft’s exterior was inspected via the station’s arm cameras, revealing the potential location of the damage to the spacecraft’s equipment compartment. According to preliminary data, the damage could have been caused by a meteoroid or space junk that hit the external cooling radiator, located on the spacecraft’s equipment compartment.