A Russian Soyuz spacecraft took off early this Friday (24, Thursday night in Brasilia) from Kazakhstan to the International Space Station (ISS), with the aim of bringing back to Earth in September two astronauts Russians and an American, whose capsule was damaged.
The MS-23 spacecraft took off without a crew from the Baikonur cosmodrome, according to a live broadcast by Nasa, which operates the ISS together with the Russian space agency Roscosmos. She should dock with the station in the early hours of next Sunday.
The launch of this device was scheduled for mid-March, in order to transport a new three-person equipment to the ISS, but it took off empty to transport the blocked astronauts: the Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Petelin and the American Frank Rubio.
In the absence of a crew to replace them, the mission of the three was extended until September, although, in principle, they were supposed to return at the end of March. In total, they will spend a year in space instead of six months.
Micrometeorito
The three astronauts had taken off at the end of September 2022 with the Soyuz MS-22. Normally, the capsules in which astronauts arrive at the ISS remain docked to the station throughout their mission, in case they need an emergency evacuation. They also usually return on the same device.
In December, however, Soyuz MS-22 experienced a coolant leak, caused, according to Moscow, by the impact of a micrometeorite. The Russian space agency decided that it could only be used in an emergency, and sent the MS-23 spacecraft to replace it.
MS-22 will return to Earth without a crew, initially in early March.
