MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. The deorbiting of the Progress MS-21 spacecraft has been postponed, Russia’s Roscosmos State Corporation said in a statement on Saturday.
"The deorbiting of Progress MS-21 has been postponed. A government commission will make a decision on its further flight program later today. There are two options: either dock it to Russia’s Prichal nodal module so that the cause of a depressurisation in its cooling system can be figured out or deorbit it," the statement reads.
No visual damage has been detected at the Progress MS-21 spacecraft after it undocked from the International Space Station. "After the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station’s Poisk mini-research module, footage was made of its exterior surface and no visual damage was detected," the statement reads.
The spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station earlier on Saturday. After the undocking, Russian cosmonauts turned the space freighter in teleoperation mode to take photographs of its damaged areas.
A drop in pressure was detected aboard Progress MS-21 on February 11. The spacecraft was isolated from the ISS, and the space station’s crew members continued their work as usual. Roscosmos CEO Yury Borisov said on February 13 that an emergency commission had been set up to look look into all possible causes of the depressurization.