An unmanned Russian spacecraft has reached the International Space Station ISS, from which it is to bring three astronauts back to Earth. The Soyuz MS-23 capsule docked with the space station on Sunday, according to live video broadcast by the US space agency Nasa. The spacecraft is scheduled to bring three astronauts stuck in the ISS back to Earth in September. It was launched on Friday from the cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
The US astronaut Frank Rubio and the Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopjew and Dmitri Petelin were originally supposed to fly back to Earth in the Soyuz MS-22 at the end of March. However, that capsule was apparently damaged by a small meteorite in mid-December, causing a leak in the spacecraft’s cooling system. The mission of the three astronauts was extended by six months because of the breakdown.
The Soyuz MS-23 was not supposed to travel to the ISS until mid-March with three successors for Rubio, Propkolew and Petelin. However, due to the damage to the MS-22 capsule, the launch was brought forward and took place without a crew.
In addition to the three crew members affected by the six-month extension of their mission, there are four other people on board the ISS: the Russian Anna Kikina, the US astronaut Nicole Mann and her compatriot Josh Cassada, and the Japanese Koichi Wakata. They flew into space on board a space capsule belonging to multi-billionaire Elon Musk as part of the Crew 5 mission in October.
In a few days, the four participants of the subsequent Crew 6 mission – two US citizens, one Emirati and one Russian – are to be added. They are also said to be arriving with a SpaceX capsule, which is scheduled to launch Monday in the US state of Florida. After a handover lasting several days, the Crew 5 astronauts will then return to Earth. Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine a year ago, space has been one of the few areas where Russia and the US are still cooperating. The ISS has been in operation since 1998.
