Soyuz MS-22

The original three-Russian member crew was named in May 2021. American astronaut Francisco Rubio replaced Anna Kikina as a part of the Soyuz-Dragon crew swap system of keeping at least one NASA astronaut and one Roscosmos cosmonaut on each of the crew rotation missions. This ensures both countries have a presence on the station, and the ability to maintain their separate systems if either Soyuz or commercial crew vehicles are grounded for an extended period.[3]

Position	Launching Crew member	Landing Crew member
Commander	Sergey Prokopyev, Roscosmos Expedition 67/68 Second spaceflight	None
Flight Engineer 1	Dmitry Petelin, Roscosmos Expedition 67/68 First spaceflight	None
Flight Engineer 2	Francisco Rubio, NASA Expedition 67/68 First spaceflight	None

Backup crew

Position	Crew member
Commander	Oleg Kononenko, Roscosmos
Flight Engineer 1	Nikolai Chub, Roscosmos
Flight Engineer 2	Loral O'Hara, NASA

The spacecraft is named in honor of Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who is today considered one of the fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics. Tsiolkovsky's 165th birthday fell on 17 September, a few days before the launch of MS-22.[4]

The emanating "stream of flakes"

On 15 December 2022 at 12:45 UTC, a "visible stream of flakes" was observed emanating from the Soyuz spacecraft, concurrent with a loss of pressure in the external radiator cooling loop.[5] A scheduled spacewalk for Petelin and Prokopyev was cancelled while the incident was evaluated.[6]

According to preliminary information, the damage left a 0.8 mm (0.031 in)-diameter hole into the external cooling radiator located on the service module of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. The leak in the radiator occurred due to a micro-meteorite impact.[7]

Two working groups have been formed to find the cause of the incident, analyze the technical condition of the ship and develop recommendations for further actions for ground specialists and the cosmonauts.

According to tests conducted on the ship's systems, the temperature in the orbital and descent modules in the first days after the incident reached 30°C (86°F), and in the service module 40°C (104°F), but by January 2023, the temperature in the whole ship had stabilized at about 30°C.

In December 2022, the outer surface of Soyuz MS-22 was examined using the cameras of the European Robotic Arm and Canadarm2. The analysis of the data received on Earth allowed engineers to detect a possible place of damage on the surface of the service module.

In February 2023, days before undocking, Progress MS-21 encountered an almost similar problem with coolant pressure leak.[8]

As Soyuz MS-22 is unable to perform crew return, it will return uncrewed like Soyuz 32 and MS-23 will be launched unmanned like Soyuz 34 as a replacement, to return the MS-22 crew on 10 March 2023 (delayed due to problems caused by another Progress MS-21 leak). The original crew of MS-23 will be delayed and will be reassigned to the MS-24 mission.[9][10] Thus, some cargo might be brought back on the uncrewed return of Soyuz MS-22.

Until the replacement MS-23 docks to ISS, SpaceX Crew-5 is considered among the options to return the MS-22 crew, in case of emergency. This is due to the fact that SpaceX originally designed the Crew Dragon to host a crew of seven at a time. Due to these reasons, the International Space Station mission management team decided to move NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio’s Soyuz seat liner from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft to Dragon Endurance, in order to provide lifeboat capabilities in the event Rubio would need to return to Earth because of an emergency evacuation from the space station. The seat liner was moved on 17 January 2023, with installation and configuration continuing through most of the day, 18 January 2023.[11] The change allows for increased crew protection by reducing the heat load inside the MS-22 spacecraft for cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petelin in the event of an emergency return to Earth. Alongside SpaceX Crew-6 space capsule is designed to bring back crew serving as a emergency evacuation after Crew-5.[12]

Once the MS-23 arrives at the space station on 22 February, Rubio’s seat liner will be transferred to the new Soyuz and the seat liners for Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin will be moved from MS-22 to MS-23 ahead of their return in the Soyuz.[11]