With Soyuz spacecraft damaged, Russia may send vehicle to rescue International Space Station crew

Russia is assessing the damage and examining the flight-worthiness of the Soyuz crew capsule docked with the International Space Station (ISS) after the vehicle, known as MS-22. began spraying its coolant into space on December 14. Dramatic Images on NASA TV showed white particles that resembled snowflakes streaming out of the rear of the spacecraft some days ago.

In a press briefing organised by the US space agency, Sergei Krikalev, who leads human spaceflight programmes at Russia's Roscosmos, told reporters the damage was being assessed.

If a thermal analysis -- which assesses how hot it will get inside the cabin -- concludes MS-22 is unfit for crewed flight, then a scheduled launch of another Soyuz capsule in mid-March from Baikonur Cosmodrome could be moved up, and it would launch uncrewed, he said.

"They're looking at late February to send up the next Soyuz vehicle," added Joel Montalbano, NASA's International Space Station programme manager, who was also on the call.

If the new Soyuz vehicle brings the crew back, the damaged spaceship will return to Earth sans the crew.

There are currently seven people aboard the orbital outpost, but if MS-22 were deemed unfit, it would also mean the ISS has just one "lifeboat" capable of carrying four people, in case it needs to be evacuated.

Americans Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japan's Koichi Wakata and Russia's Anna Kikina arrived on a SpaceX Crew Dragon in October.It is unclear why the damage took place, said Montalbano.

But it does not appear as though the Geminid meteor shower, an annual phenomenon, was to blame, since the hull was penetrated from a different direction.

"Both the trajectory team in Houston and the trajectory team in Moscow confirmed it was not from the meteor showers," he said.More work is still needed to determine if it was caused by naturally occurring micrometeoroids,man-made debris in orbit, or a hardware failure, he added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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