Russia launched a ship to the ISS to rescue three astronauts

Russian ship Union flew early Friday morning from Kazakhstan to the International Space Station (ISS) to return to Earth in September two Russian cosmonauts and one American whose capsule was damaged. The replacement MS-23 spacecraft launched without people on board from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, according to a live video broadcast from NASA, which operates the ISS jointly with the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The takeoff and insertion of the spacecraft into orbit “went smoothly,” Roscosmos said in a statement, which expects it to be docked at the space station on Feb. 26 at 01:01 GMT. The launch of this device was originally scheduled for mid-March to deliver a new team of three people to the ISS.

But in the end, it remained empty to return the three blocked cosmonauts: the Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin and the American Frank Rubio. Due to the lack of crew to replace them, the mission of the three was extended until September, although in theory they were supposed to return at the end of March. In total, they will spend a year in space, not six months.

micrometeorite

Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut took off at the end of September 2022 on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. Typically, the capsules that astronauts bring to the ISS remain attached to the station for the duration of their stay in case they need an emergency evacuation. They also usually come back with the same device.

But in December, the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft leaked coolant, caused, according to Moscow, by the fall of a micrometeorite. This incident raised concerns about the temperature that could be reached inside the craft when returning to Earth. The Russian space agency decided that it could only be used in an emergency and sent the MS-23 spacecraft in September as a replacement for the return of the crew.

The damaged MS-22 should be released from the ISS and returned empty to Earth a priori in early March. A similar leak occurred in mid-February on another Russian ship, the Progress MS-21 cargo ship, which has been moored to the ISS since October. This one was not supposed to carry passengers and was undocked last week. On Tuesday, Roscosmos said “an external influence” caused the leak and ruled out manufacturing errors.

new mission

In addition to the three crew members who arrived aboard the Soyuz, there are currently four more passengers on the ISS, crew-5 members and those who arrived with the Dragon capsule. SpaceX in October 2022. The American company is due to send four replacements to the station on Monday for the Crew-6 mission: two NASA astronauts, one Emirati and a Russian cosmonaut.

After a transition of several days, Crew-5 will return to Earth. The ISS represents one of the few remaining spaces for cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the start of the Russian offensive into Ukraine, which began a year ago.

According to AFP