That area does not have enough room for all three to sit without overlapping each other and generally that means the commander sits up front with the two others seated slightly behind, resulting in one of their arms being obscured.

Soyuz MS-22 is scheduled to lift off at 9:54 a.m. EDT (13:54 UTC) Wednesday, Sept. 21; NASA TV coverage will begin at 9 a.m.

The leak is believed to have emanated from an exterior cooling loop.

The external radiator cooling loop of the Soyuz is the suspected leak source.

Roscosmos is closely monitoring Soyuz spacecraft temperatures, which remain within acceptable limits. NASA and Roscosmos continue to coordinate external imagery and inspection plans to aid in evaluating the external leak location. Plans for an additional inspection of the Soyuz exterior using the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm are underway.

NASA will use the 17.6-meter-long Canadarm2—also known as the space station remote manipulator system—to get a closer look at the Soyuz spacecraft. It's hoped that this visual inspection, likely to take place over the weekend, will provide more definitive information on the source of the leak, its cause, and whether other elements of the Soyuz spacecraft were damaged. To facilitate this work, NASA will delay a spacewalk planned for Monday by astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada.

In other diagnostic work, Roscosmos performed a test of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft's thrusters early on Friday morning to determine whether there were any issues with its propulsion system. This test, according to sources, was nominal.

The biggest concern, however, is the flight computers on board the Soyuz spacecraft overheating. They are used to calculate a precise entry for the Soyuz to ensure it lands in a designated area of Kazakhstan, near recovery forces. Without the flight computers, the procedure would have to be done manually. This is possible but far from optimal, as the area in which the Soyuz might land would be vast.

During the thruster test on Monday morning, the flight computer did warm up, but it did not exceed temperature limits, according to a source. There was a speculative report in the Russian press that the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft reached an internal temperature of 50 degrees Celsius, but Roscosmos said this is not accurate. ...

At present, the space station is in "high beta," which means it's in a period of full illumination from the Sun during the entirety of its orbit. Over time, this may cause the flight computers to overheat. For this reason, some consideration is being given to an early departure by the crew of Soyuz MS-22, cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA's Frank Rubio. They could leave the station as early as this month if flight controllers determine there is the potential for the flight computers or other sensitive avionics to be damaged before the spacecraft's planned return in March 2023.

According to preliminary information, the damage could have been caused by the micrometeoroid or space debris hit into the external cooler radiator located on the service module of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft.

There is currently no need for an emergency evacuation.

Due to the conducted tests of the ship's systems, the temperature in the orbital and descent modules in the first days after the incident reached +30 C, and in the service module - +40 C, but in recent days, the temperature in the whole ship stabilized at about +30 C.

Two working groups have been formed to find the cause of the incident, analyze the technical condition of the ship and develop recommendations for further actions for ground specialists and the cosmonauts.

On December 16, 2022, a number of tests of the Soyuz MS-22 systems were conducted, including the thrusters tests. They have shown that there are no other malfunctions. The specialists plan to continue the tests.

On December 18, 2022, the outer surface of Soyuz MS-22 was examined using the cameras of the manipulator arm. The analysis of the data received on Earth allowed to detect a possible place of damage on the surface of the service module.

By the end of December, the working groups will make their conclusions, and a decision on the future of Soyuz MS-22 will be made. There are 2 options: to land the crew on this ship in March 2023, as planned, or send Soyuz MS-23 in an automatic mode to replace Soyuz MS-22.

The diameter of the hole is about 0.8 mm.

The decision on the future actions will be made on December 27.

If there will be any doubts in the safety of Soyuz MS-22, it will be replaced with Soyuz MS-23 which can be prepared for flight by February 19.

"A meeting is due tomorrow, but a final decision will not be taken for now. There will be a report by technical specialists and a technical decision made regarding the further mode of action and how the flight’s program should be changed," Krikalyov said.

He recalled that the cooling loop of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft had been lost due to damage and technicians were currently evaluating the implications.

"Medics will be asked to share their opinion. They will tell us whether the crew will be able to work inside the spacecraft for some time, should such a need arise," he added.

The primary concern with returning a crew to Earth on Soyuz MS-22 is that without a functioning coolant system, the temperature and humidity in the Soyuz would reach levels that would be unhealthy for anyone on board.

Roscosmos expects the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft to conduct a nominal reentry and land in Kazakhstan as usual.

If an emergency occurs on the space station before the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft can arrive on Feb. 20, requiring that the crew evacuate and return to Earth, then the plan is either to have all three Soyuz MS-22 crewmates lands on Soyuz MS-22 or perhaps transfer one crew member to Dragon. The plans for that unlikely scenario are still in work.

Soyuz MS-22 is docked to Rassvet mini-research module, while Soyuz MS-23 is docked to the zenith port of the Poisk mini-research module on the opposite side of the space station.

Though an initial report suggests the thermal conditions aboard Soyuz MS-22 were better than the predicted worst-case scenarios, it would have been about 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) if there had been two crew members aboard for the return.

Soyuz MS-22 did return (480 pounds) 218 kilograms of cargo in the cosmonauts' place. According to Roscosmos (via Russian Space Web):

Items to be returned included materials from science experiments, such as Neiroimmunitet, Biomag-M, Fotobioreaktor, Probiovit, Struktura, Fagen, MSK-2 and 3D Printer. In addition, some unidentified hardware from the Soyuz-MS spacecraft, including wide-band communications equipment, control avionics, air-conditioning systems, water and urine recycling components and oxygen producing equipment would also be returned, the State Corporation said.