MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. The causes of anomalies aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft and the Progress MS-21 resupply ship docked to the International Space Station (ISS) can differ, Roscosmos Chief Yury Borisov told reporters on Monday.
"Two anomalies have emerged on the ISS over the past several months. They are related to the disruption of the thermal control system on the Soyuz-22 spacecraft and the Progress-21 resupply ship. An emergency commission has been set up, which is examining all the versions systemically and thoroughly. The result of both anomalies is the same but their causes can be different," the Roscosmos chief pointed out.
On February 11, the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft experienced a coolant leak while the space freighter was preparing for its undocking from the ISS. The resupply ship that was expected to end its flight within the ISS on February 18 experienced a depressurization of its coolant loop. By now, the space freighter has been isolated from the orbital outpost and the causes of its depressurization are being investigated, Roscosmos said.
On December 15, 2022, the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the orbital outpost experienced a coolant leak on its external radiator. After analyzing the situation, Russia’s state commission made a decision to bring the damaged Soyuz spacecraft back to Earth in crewless mode and return Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio whose mission has been prolonged for several months aboard the Soyuz MS-23 spaceship.
Russian space industry specialists have carried out special investigations to find out that the Soyuz MS-22 was damaged by a sporadic micrometeoroid.