An unmanned Soyuz capsule has launched to the ISS to replace a damaged space shuttle at the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-23 lifted off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday, live images from the US space agency Nasa showed. With around 430 kilograms of cargo for the crew on board, including medical devices and equipment for scientific experiments, the capsule is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Sunday at 2:01 a.m. CET.
The unusual mission became necessary because the MS-22 ferry docked at 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 seem risky. The plan is now that the cosmonauts Sergei Prokopjew and Dmitri Petelin as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who came to the ISS in September with the MS-22, are expected to return to Earth with the MS-23 in the autumn. In the meantime, the damaged MS-22 capsule could fly back from the ISS unmanned.
Russia and the United States have been working closely together on the space station around 400 kilometers above the earth for more than 20 years, but the relationship got into a serious crisis exactly one year ago because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, both countries continue to cooperate in space.