If The Soyuz Module -- Now Docked At ISS -- Is Deemed Not "Return Flight Ready", Russia Is Quickly Working A Backup Plan, For Cosmonauts' Safe Return.

It is almost as though the Sandra Bullock/George Clooney sci-fi vehicle -- "Gravity" -- of a few years back has come to life. Well, almost. The .gif at right is from NASA / ISS higher-res video footage of the event. It is not yet known whether the current Soyuz module will be deemed safe for a crewed re-entry. But in the event it is deemed "not safe", Russia is making plans to fast launch another Soyuz, as a "life-raft" of sorts, here on Christmas Eve 2022.

Here are the details, from Space.com's fine reporting today:

. . .It will be a while before backup comes for a space station crew currently depending on a leaky Soyuz to get home. February, to be exact.

Should the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft be deemed unsafe after spouting coolant into space Dec. 14, two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut will need to wait until February for a backup Soyuz to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS), a Russian space official said during a press conference Thursday (Dec. 22).

"Our next crew. . . was scheduled to fly in the middle of March," said Sergei Krikalev, head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow, during the livestreamed NASA press conference. . . .

If Russia indeed fast-tracks the next Soyuz to the space station, the damaged MS-22 would come back empty. "Roscosmos would plan to return the current Soyuz on orbit and collect the data so they can use that for future evaluations" Montalbano said. . . .

Now you know -- be excellent to one another -- and we wish you all peace, and prosperity, in the coming New Year. Thinkin' only good thoughts, of all of you. . . be wonderful, and be. . . adventurous!. Grin.

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