NASA has asked SpaceX if a Dragon Crew capsule could be deployed to pick up the crew, a US space agency spokesperson confirms Reuters. NASA confirms that the rescue of the International Space Station crew is not yet on the table.
On December 15, the Soyuz capsule was damaged when Russian cosmonauts wanted to take a spacewalk. The spacecraft is believed to have hit a small space rock or perhaps even a piece of space debris. This caused a leak in the space shuttle’s cooling system.
The coolant has leaked out due to a leak. The Soyuz capsule may no longer be used. It was planned that three ISS crew members, two Russians and one American, would return to Earth on the spacecraft early next year.
A NASA spokesperson said that no decision has been made yet on how the astronauts will return to Earth. Both NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, are studying the possibilities.
