The depressurization of the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft, which occurred on February 11, most likely occurred due to a violation of the technology for the production of Russian segments of the ISS. This was stated to Izvestia by a source in Roscosmos, who is familiar with the situation.
“I suppose we are talking about some kind of deviation from the technology – a slightly different material, a slightly different production conditions, a different operator. Structurally, this unit (thermal control system. – Ed.) has not changed and has served well for many years, so it is unlikely that the problem is in its circuit. I hope that this problem will be solved on the next ships sent into space, ”the interlocutor emphasized.
The depressurization of Progress is the second such incident in less than two months. On December 15, a similar thing happened with Soyuz MS-22. Then the reason was officially called a meteoroid impact on the ship’s hull. However, the interlocutor of Izvestia questioned this version.
“Personally, in my opinion, the probability of such an event is almost zero, but it is impossible to verify and prove it. If it were a meteoroid, it would fly at a tremendous speed, about 30 km / s, and would not stop, but would break through the firmware [в двух местах] and flew on. And even more so, it is hard to believe that such an event happened twice. [за короткий промежуток времени]”- he noted.
The head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said on February 13 that the emergency commission was “considering all options.” In the meantime, the investigation is underway, the launch to the ISS of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, which is supposed to pick up three cosmonauts from orbit, has been postponed.
Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:
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