An unmanned Soyuz capsule has docked with the ISS to replace a damaged space shuttle at the International Space Station. After launching from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday, the Soyuz MS-23 arrived at the space station on Sunday, live images from the US space agency Nasa showed. The capsule carried around 430 kilograms of material for the crew, including medical equipment and equipment for scientific experiments.
The unusual mission became necessary because the MS-22 ferry, which had previously docked with the ISS, has a leak – probably caused by a micrometeorite. The liquid leaking from the cooling system made the return of two Russians and an American to Earth seem risky. It is now planned that the cosmonauts Sergei Prokopjew and Dmitri Petelin as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who came to the ISS with the MS-22 in September, are expected to return to Earth with the MS-23 in the autumn. In the meantime, the damaged MS-22 capsule might fly back unmanned from the ISS.
Although Russia and the USA have been working closely together on the space station around 400 kilometers above the earth for more than 20 years, the relationship has fallen into a serious crisis since the Russian invasion of Ukraine around a year ago. Both countries continue to cooperate in space, although certain tensions have already arisen here – triggered by the Ukraine conflict.