Russia launched today towards the International Space Station (ISS) the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft without a crew on board, which will serve to bring back two Russian cosmonauts and an astronaut from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, for its acronym in English) instead of the damaged Soyuz MS-22.
The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket was launched from Moscow, according to schedule by the Russian space agency Roscosmosand the Soyuz MS-23 is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Sunday.
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The Soyuz MS-23 will return Russian cosmonauts to Earth next September Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Petelinalso to the American astronaut of Salvadoran origin Frank Rubiowho have been on the ISS since September 21, 2022, about six months longer than expected.
Roscosmos made the decision to discard the Soyuz MS-22 for the return of the Russian-American crew to Earth after a leak was detected in the ship’s cooling system last December.
Subsequently, on February 11, another flaw was detected in the Russian space freighter Progress MS-21, which made the Russian space authorities fear that it was a design flaw and forced them to postpone the launch of the Soyuz MS-23. until a thorough inspection was made.
On February 20, Roscosmos finally authorized the launch of the new ship after ruling out failures in the refrigeration system.
The Soyuz MS-23, designed to travel with crew members, carries 429 kilograms of cargo on board, which includes medical equipment, means for cleaning the station and control of air purification systems and its balance of gases in addition to water supply.
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The ship transfers to the orbital platform equipment for various scientific experiments of the Russian space agency. Crew number 68, made up of seven people, now works on the orbital platform: the Russians Sergei Prokopiev, Dmitri Petelin and Anna Kikina; NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, and Japanese Koichi Wakata.
