Problems on the ISS

by Zlatan Bisercic - October 16, 2023

Source: NASA

There are issues connected to the coolant leak on the International Space Station (ISS), the third in a row within less than a year. In December, the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft lost coolant three months after arriving at the station. That led Roscosmos to replace that spacecraft with an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz MS-23, a decision that kept the crew that launched to the station on Soyuz MS-22 in space for an extra six months, returning September 27. In February, an uncrewed Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft also experienced a coolant leak. That leak took place just before the spacecraft, which launched the previous October, was scheduled to undock from the station. The two leaks raised suspicions of a design or manufacturing flaw with the spacecraft. However, Roscosmos concluded that the leaks were caused by impacts with micrometeoroids or orbital debris. NASA officials accepted that conclusion. As for the active leak, a flight contollers informed the station’s crew, who were able to visually confirm the leak. It is unclear how this leak will effect the current plans on the ISS.

We had only two launches last week, Falcon Heavy carrying NASA’s Psyche mission to asteroid Psyche and Falcon 9 with 22 Starlink satellites, both from SpaceX.
The Psyche mission is a unique opportunity to investigate the largest metal-made asteroid in the Main Asteroid Belt, but also to test the hypothesis that the asteroid was once a potential planet in the forming process. The mission hitched the ride on the Falcon Heavy that propelled it on the desirable trajectory. Both boosters made a successful landing at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The central core, which had to be expendable for this mission, continued firing another minute and a half before it, too, fell away.
The second launch saw Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites, the B1067 booster made its 14^th flight, separating from the second stage about two and a half minutes into flight and then arcing downrange for a landing on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

Keep looking up and see you next time!

Sources: SpaceNews, Universe Today, Spaceflight Now, Space.com, Space Daily, Wikipedia