External Influence, not Manufacturing Defect Damaged Russian 'Progress MS-21' Spacecraft - Roscosmos

Damage to the Russian 'Progress MS-21' spacecraft that led to a coolant leak when docked with the International Space Station (ISS) was caused by "external influences," according to Roscosmos space agency.

The analysis of emergency situations with the Soyuz MS-22 and Progress MS-21 spacecraft on the ISS continues. After the Progress undocked from the ISS, a detailed photo and video filming of the spacecraft was carried out, Roscosmos announced on its Telegram Channel.

According to preliminary data from the Russian space agency, RSC Energia, the Progress MS-21, like the Soyuz MS-22 before, was exposed to external influences. Such conclusions are made on the basis of photographs that show "changes" on the outer surface of the ship, including on the radiator of the instrument-aggregate compartment and solar panels.

Manufacturing defects excluded

In addition, in order to exclude manufacturing defects as the cause, RSC Energia analyzed the history of comments on the thermal control system over the past 15 years.
The analysis of the received information continues, a number of ground experiments are planned to simulate damage.
A decision was made to launch the Soyuz MS-23 unmanned spacecraft to the ISS:
Launch - February 24, docking - February 26.
The ship is designed to replace the emergency Soyuz MS-22 and return Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev, Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio to Earth.