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NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques will be the next to visit the space station. They are photographed here in May 2018.
Credit: NASA / Elizabeth Weissinger
Three months before their planned launch at the International Space Station and a week after a small depressurization in the orbiting laboratory, the next trio of astronauts to leave Earth has expressed confidence in the safety of the spacecraft involved in their journey.
The incident was traced to a 2 millimeter (0.08 inch) hole in the Soyuz capsule that carried three astronauts to the station in June and will remain docked until their departure in December. According to NASA statements, the astronauts have never been in danger and the hole will not affect the return of the crew to Earth because it is in a module that burns during the fall.
"For us first of all, it's a wake-up call: all this training we're going through, it's not a joke, it can really be useful," said Novice astronaut David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency at a press conference. press conference. "It makes you want to study even harder and train you harder to be able to answer any problem like that." [Latest: Hole That Caused Leak in Russian Spacecraft Possibly Traced to Assembly or Testing: Report]
Two Russian cosmonauts repaired the leak on 30 August; Since then, Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, has opened an investigation into how the leak occurred.
Naturally, Saint-Jacques was curious to know what this investigation would find. "It's still a mystery, as a detective job, it's a question," he said. "The most important question is to make sure that the spaceship is in good condition."
Early reports from Russia suggest that human error on the ground in the pre-launch period may be involved.
"Personally, I believe in this commission 100%, they have a very long history of safe space flights," said Anne McClain, a NASA astronaut preparing her first space flight, at the press conference. "I trust them just as I trust the people here at NASA, they will find out and they will not let a dangerous vehicle fly."
Of course, in addition to investigating the leak incident, Roscosmos makes sure of this, including checking the Soyuz capsules currently in preparation for launch. "I'm sure the specialists will find out what went wrong and I'm convinced that it's as I said, just an exception," cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko said at the press conference. translator.
Saint-Jacques, McClain and Kononenko are due to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 20th for a six-month stay at the International Space Station.
E-mail Meghan Bartels at [email protected]or follow her @meghanbartels. follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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