Russian Cosmonauts To Investigate Hole In Soyuz Spacecraft From Exterior - Roscosmos

Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Sergey Prokopyev will go on a spacewalk on November 15 in an attempt to investigate a micro hole in the hull of the Soyuz spacecraft from the exterior, Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th September, 2018) Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Sergey Prokopyev will go on a spacewalk on November 15 in an attempt to investigate a micro hole in the hull of the Soyuz spacecraft from the exterior, Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos said Tuesday.

On August 30, the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) detected an insignificant air leak, caused by a microfracture on a wall of the living section of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, docked to the ISS. The hole was patched on the same day to restore the hermetic integrity of the ISS.

"The spacewalk is scheduled for November 15.

This is a planned trip, to which we add a task," First Deputy General Director of Roscosmos, Nikolay Sevastyanov, told reporters.

Meanwhile, Roscosmos Deputy CEO Sergei Krikalev specified that the cosmonauts will try to open the thermal blanket and micrometeorite protection cover of the Soyuz MS-09 spaceship in order to investigate the hole from the outside and evaluate it for the presence of burrs.

In addition, Ovchinin and Prokopyev will try to find the remains of a sealant, with which the hole could have been plugged during the production of the spacecraft, Krikalev said.