spacetoday.net: Russia to send replacement Soyuz to ISS

Russia to send replacement Soyuz to ISS

Posted: Sat, Jan 21, 2023, 11:08 AM ET (1608 GMT)
Russia will launch a Soyuz spacecraft without a crew to the International Space Station to replace a damaged Soyuz there. The Russian space agency Roscosmos announced Jan. 11 it would launch the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on Feb. 20 to the ISS with no crew on board. It will replace Soyuz MS-22, which suffered a coolant leak last month. Soyuz MS-22 will return to Earth uncrewed. The decision will extend the stay of cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who flew to the station on Soyuz MS-22 in September and planned to use it to return to Earth in March. Roscosmos did not disclose how much longer they would remain on the ISS.