Russia to send crewless Soyuz spacecraft 'on February 20' to return ISS stranded crew
Moscow will launch a rescue vessel to the International Space Station next month to bring home three crew members who are in effect stuck in orbit after their original capsule was hit by a meteoroid.
The docked Soyuz MS-22 sprang a major leak last month, spraying radiator coolant into space and prompting a pair of cosmonauts to abort a planned spacewalk.
While Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the strike caused no immediate threat to the crew of the space station, it raised concerns about whether everyone on the orbital outpost could return to Earth in an emergency situation.
After deliberations, Roscosmos said it has decided to bring forward a planned March launch of the Soyuz MS-23 to 20 February so it can be used to transport the Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and the US astronaut Francisco Rubio back to Earth.
If a “particularly critical” situation arose on the ISS in the weeks before then, Roscosmos said, the possibility of using the damaged Soyuz MS-22 to rescue the crew would be considered.
"The State Commission has decided to launch the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on February 20, 2023 in unmanned mode" says Russian space agency Roscosmos' General Director, Yuri Borisov.
The spacecraft will bring back the NASA and Roscosmos crew from the International Space Station, stranded since spacecraft Soyuz MS-22 was damaged by a small meteorite.
