Moscow, Feb 24 (EFE).- Russia launched today towards the International Space Station (ISS) the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft without a crew on board, which will serve to bring back two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut in site of the damaged Soyuz MS-22.
The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket was launched at 03:24 Moscow time (0.24 GMT), as scheduled by Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, and the Soyuz MS-23 is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Sunday.
Interagency cooperation despite war in Ukraine
The Soyuz MS-23 will return to Earth next September the Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Petelin, and the American astronaut of Salvadoran origin Frank Rubio, who have been on the ISS since September 21, 2022, for about six months more than anticipated.
Despite tensions between Russia and the ISS’s Western partners over Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, the space agencies have not stopped cooperating over the past year.
Roscosmos made the decision to discard the Soyuz MS-22 for the return of the Russian-American crew to Earth after a leak was detected in the ship’s cooling system last December.
Subsequently, on February 11, another refrigerant leak was detected in the Russian space freighter Progress MS-21, which 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 close inspection.
On February 20, Roscosmos finally authorized the launch of the new ship after ruling out failures in the refrigeration system.
Almost half a ton of cargo
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 control of air purification systems and their balance of gases and supply of water.
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.
Crew number 68 is now working on the orbital platform, made up of seven people: the Russians Sergei Prokopiev, Dmitri Petelin and Anna Kikina; NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, and Koichi Wakata from Japan.
