Russian Cosmonauts Left Without Spacesuits

Their service life has expired.

The service life of Russian cosmonauts' spacesuits has come to an end, but new spacewalking gear will not be made before 2024, Izvestia reported, citing three sources in the rocket and space industry.

Astronauts use two spacesuit models - Orlan-MKS No. 4 and Orlan-MKS No. 5. According to the newspaper interlocutors, space suit No. 4 has already expired, while No. 5 is close to expiry. Both spacesuit models are designed for 20 spacewalks.

"To date, No. 4 has been used in 19 spacewalks and two operations inside the depressurised Poisk module. No. 5 has 17 exits and two similar work inside the depressurised module," a source explained, stressing that the work on Poisk had already taken place in the expired No. 4 spacesuit.

At the same time, despite the number of spacewalks, the Orlan-MKS has a five-year lifespan. In spacesuit number 4, the first spacewalk was made by Fyodor Yurchikhin on August 17, 2017, so it has already been out of service for nine months. Model No. 5 was taken off the ship for the first time on August 15, 2018, leaving it with only a few months of normal use.

"Shelf life is the most important criterion for determining a spacesuit's protective properties. Even if you don't go into outer space in them, they still lose their characteristics," explained a source at RSC Energia. However, according to him, the actual condition of the spacesuits can be adjusted by replacing individual assemblies and elements.

"At the moment, Roscosmos is doing just that, repairing what they have," the source added.

A technical malfunction in a spacesuit could lead to a temporary or permanent ban on working in it outside the spacecraft, but even if problems arise, they will be solved by extending the service life, said an interlocutor in one of Roscosmos' organisations.

"A huge safety margin is built into everything made for space, hence the actual service life is higher than that prescribed in the documents," the source said.

Roscosmos said it plans to produce one space suit in 2024 and two more in 2025. "They will be made using domestic materials. Spare parts have been created and are being delivered to the station to continue the operation of the two Orlan-MKS," the state corporation's press service said.

Any system formally has a specific service life, but in reality it is a "fuzzy" concept, said Natan Eismont, a leading researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "The ISS can be given as an example - the station's warranty period has long expired, but it continues to operate," the expert said.