Russia said that three astronauts who were stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) due to a leak in their return capsule will return to Earth on a Soyuz MS-23 replacement capsule.
Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft MS-23 brought cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio back to Earth.
Russia’s Replacement Soyuz Spacecraft Arrives At ISS
Russia’s Roscosmos Space Agency said early Sunday morning that the unmanned spacecraft connected with the International Space Station around 7:58 p.m. EDT on Saturday. As anticipated, the flight launched on February 24 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
MS-23 was initially slated to launch later this year, but Roscosmos was forced to advance the launch after MS-22 Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio’s original return vehicle developed a coolant leak in December after being struck by a micrometeoroid.
The incident placed Roscosmos and NASA in a precarious situation. If an emergency occurred on the International Space Station and the entire crew had to escape, it was unclear if MS-22 could return its crew to Earth safely.
Roscosmos and NASA settled on a backup plan in which the MS-22 would have transported Prokopyev and Petelin, while Rubio would have boarded the SpaceX Crew-5 Dragon. Luckily, the proposal was never put to the test by the two agencies.
Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio will remain in the space station until at least September, now that MS-23 is securely docked with the ISS. Initially, the three were scheduled to conclude their mission in March. In the interim, Roscomos intends to return MS-22 to Earth next month.
Russia has established a new timetable for sending a rescue ship to the International Space Station to retrieve the three astronauts whose December Soyuz return vehicle was compromised.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos told AFP on Saturday that it is aiming for a February 24 launch for MS-23, the unmanned Soyuz spacecraft that will return cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio from the International Space Station.
Roscosmos postponed the mission on Monday after the Progress 82 supply ship, which has been docked with the International Space Station since October, began leaking coolant over the weekend.
Petelin, Prokopyev, and Rubio were scheduled to return on the same Soyuz spacecraft that took them to the space station in September.
In December, however, a meteoroid impact caused the spacecraft to spring a leak. A month later, Roscosmos stated that a second Soyuz spacecraft would be dispatched to recover the three crew.
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Roscosmos Blames Leak To Stray Space Rock
Roscosmos initially blamed a stray space rock for the Soyuz leak, although it was actually a manufacturing defect. This past week, the government released the above pictures depicting the coolant leak site and reported a micrometeoroid impact.
Saturday, Roscosmos announced that the rescue ship had been meticulously inspected to guarantee that it was intact and flight-ready. A day prior, Progress 82 detached from the ISS.
According to Space News, video transmitted during the undocking procedure did not reveal any clear evidence of damage to the resupply vessel. NASA reports that Progress 82 will conduct a deorbit burn tonight at 10:15 p.m. EST.
If Roscosmos does not postpone MS-23’s launch, the spacecraft will arrive at the International Space Station two days before Space X’s Crew-6 mission’s February 26 launch.
This voyage will transport to the space station two NASA astronauts, one astronaut from the United Arab Emirates, and a cosmonaut from Russia.
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