Status: 02/26/2023 03:12 a.m
The Russian Soyuz space capsule MS-23 has reached the international space station ISS. It replaces the damaged space shuttle there. Two Russian cosmonauts and one US astronaut are to return to Earth with the new capsule in the fall.
An unmanned Soyuz capsule has docked with the ISS to replace a damaged space shuttle at the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-23 was launched on Friday from the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and reached the space station on Sunday night. The capsule carried around 430 kilograms of material for the crew, including medical equipment and equipment for scientific experiments.
Damage from micrometeorites
The unusual mission became necessary because the MS-22 ferry, which had previously docked with the ISS, has a leak – probably caused by a micrometeorite. The liquid leaking from the cooling system made the return of two Russians and an American to Earth seem risky. It is now planned that the cosmonauts Sergei Prokopjew and Dmitri Petelin as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who came to the ISS in September with the MS-22, are expected to return to Earth with the MS-23 in the autumn. In the meantime, the damaged MS-22 capsule could fly back unmanned from the ISS.
Although Russia and the USA have been working closely together on the ISS around 400 kilometers above the earth for more than 20 years, the relationship has fallen into a serious crisis since the Russian invasion of Ukraine around a year ago.