The astronauts have been at the station for six months longer than expected
Russia launched today towards the International Space Station (ISS) the unmanned Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, which will serve to bring back two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut. NASA instead of the damaged Soyuz MS-22.
The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket was launched at 03:24 Moscow time (0.24 GMT), according to the schedule of the Russian space agency. Roscosmos, and the Soyuz MS-23 is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Sunday.
The Soyuz MS-23 will return Russian cosmonauts to Earth next September Sergui Prokpiev and Dmitri Petelin, and the American astronaut of Salvadoran origin Frank Rubio, who have been on the ISS since September 21, 2022, about six months longer than anticipated.
Despite tensions between Russia and Western partners of the ISS by the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, space agencies they have not stopped cooperating during the last year.
Roscosmos made the decision to discard the Soyuz MS-22 for the return of the Russian-American crew to the Tierra after last December a leak was detected in the ship’s refrigeration system.
Subsequently, on February 11, another refrigerant leak was detected in the Russian space freighter. Progress MS-21, lor that it 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 it passed a thorough inspection.
Last 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 the control of air purification systems and their balance of gases and water supply.
It also carries food, clothing, spare parts and equipment for the Russian segment of the station.
In addition, the ship transports to the orbital platform equipment for various scientific experiments of the Russian space agency.
The crew number 68, consisting of seven people, is now working on the orbital platform: the Russians Sergei Prokpiev, Dmitry Petelin and Anna Kkina; NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, and the Japanese Koichi Wakata.
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