The replacement spacecraft will likely launch in February.
Leaks in the spacecraft were discovered late last year. NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos are sending the replacement craft sometime next month, though it’s not considered a rescue mission. A SpaceX spacecraft is standing by as a backup.A Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station beganearly last month, leading to concerns about whether the vehicle would be safe to transport ISS crew members back to Earth.
NASA is referring to the new Soyuz as a replacement vehicle, not a rescue, and is emphasizing that the space station crew is safe. “We’re not calling it a rescue Soyuz. Right now, the crew is safe aboard the space station,” Joel Montalbano, International Space Station program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a briefing. “There’s no immediate need for the crew to come home today. All the systems are operating.
When the new Soyuz arrives at the space station, equipment will be moved from the old vehicle to the new one. Then the new Soyuz will be used to bring the crew back to Earth, and the old Soyuz will be landed as usual but without crew so it can be checked for damage and its effects on performance.
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