NASA is exploring whether SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft can potentially offer an alternative ride home for some crew members of the International Space Station after a Russian capsule sprang a coolant leak while docked to the orbital lab.
NASA and Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, are investigating the cause of a punctured coolant line on an external radiator of Russia's Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which is supposed to return its crew of two cosmonauts and one U.S. astronaut to Earth early next year.
But the company's potential involvement in a mission led by Russia underscores the degree of precaution NASA is taking to ensure its astronauts can safely return to Earth, should one of the other contingency plans arranged by Russia fall through. SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, a gumdrop-shaped pod with four astronaut seats, has become the centerpiece to NASA's human spaceflight efforts in low-Earth orbit. Besides Russia's Soyuz program, it is the only entity capable of ferrying humans to the space station and back.Finding what caused the leak could factor into decisions about the best way to return the crew members.
Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov had previously said engineers would decide by Tuesday how to return the crew to Earth, but the agency said that day it would make the decision in January. NASA and Roscosmos are primarily focusing on determining the leak's cause, Jones said, as well as the health of MS-22 which is also meant to serve as the three-man crew's lifeboat in case an emergency on the station requires evacuation.
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