Russia to ditch one of its two leaky space station ships over the ocean

Russia will dispose of a leaky supply ship that had been docked at the International Space Station this weekend, allowing it to burn up over the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA.

Managers of the Russian space agency Roscosmos decided to bring the Progress 82 cargo capsule back with an engine burn scheduled at 10:15 p.m. ET Saturday. They made the decision after undocking the ship(Opens in a new tab) Friday night to get a better look at its radiator.

No astronauts will be aboard the deorbiting spacecraft, as it’s not intended for passengers. NASA said the ship is loaded with trash(Opens in a new tab).

Tweet may have been deleted
(opens in a new tab)
(Opens in a new tab)

The sendoff follows the discovery of a coolant leak onboard the spacecraft on Feb. 11(Opens in a new tab), making it the second Russian spacecraft to spring a leak at the space station over the past two months.

A Soyuz capsule for carrying humans also suffered a coolant leak in Dec. 2022, leaving three crew members without a return ride. After an investigation into the first leak, Russian and U.S. space officials believed a micrometeoroid smaller than a sharpened pencil tip had caused the puncture, not a manufacturing defect. The coolant seeping into space, caught on live video(Opens in a new tab), was intended to keep the cabin at a comfortable temperature.

But officials have not yet elaborated on the culprit of the cargo ship leak.

“The entire NASA and Roscosmos team have continued to work together to investigate the cause of this situation, and we will continue to do so,” said Jeff Arend, manager of NASA’s space station engineering office, during an unrelated news conference Friday. “We’ll know more in the coming days.”

“We’ll know more in the coming days.”

Roscosmos investigated a coolant leak onboard a spacecraft that was intended to send an astronaut and two cosmonauts home in March 2023.
Credit: NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP Via Getty Images

Want more science and tech news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories newsletter today.

Both agencies previously determined the leaky crew capsule would be unfit to bring three men home. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio(Opens in a new tab) and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, who arrived at the space station in Sept. 2022, were supposed to be at the Earth-orbiting laboratory for six months, with a return trip set for March.

But it hasn’t been clear when they will fly home.

Despite the Russia-Ukraine war and geopolitical tensions between Russia and the United States, the two nations’ space agencies have continued to work collaboratively at the space station.

Tweet may have been deleted
(opens in a new tab)
(Opens in a new tab)

Joel Montalbano, NASA’s space station program manager, said in January that the crew had taken the news well that their return ride was still TBD, were excited to be doing research in space, and were prepared to stay a full year if necessary.

“I may have to fly some more ice cream to reward them,” he said then.

Earlier on Saturday, Roscosmos said it wants to launch an empty ship for the marooned crew on Feb. 24, according to news wire reports(Opens in a new tab). A state commission has to approve the new date, according to an Agence France-Presse report on Saturday.