The pre-flight check of the Soyuz MS-26 at Baikonur continues, and vacuum tests are already underway.
According to Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, Progress space freighters are also undergoing leak tests. During testing, they are "dressed," wrapped in screen-vacuum thermal insulation (SVTI). But the manned Soyuz spacecraft, unlike them, are tested for leaks "semi-naked," and you can see their capsule.
The fact is that the Soyuz will have to remove this part of the protection directly in orbit. At the end of the flight, the descent vehicle needs to get rid of the SVTI so that it does not interfere with entry into the atmosphere. This part of the protection is maximally protected, it is attached shortly before the launch at Baikonur, while the rest of the material is installed at the homeland of spacecraft, in Korolev.
The Soyuz MS-26 will spend about five days in a vacuum chamber. Compartments and communications are filled with helium: it will help to find and eliminate even the most microscopic leak.
The Soyuz MS-26 will fly to the ISS in September, its crew includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Wagner, and NASA astronaut Donald Pettit.
Read more on the topic:
Rookie in orbit: Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov is preparing to be sent to the ISS on a NASA ship
Russian cosmonauts conducted a series of experiments on the ISS before returning home
