Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Russia launched a Soyuz spacecraft to replace a rocket that had a coolant leak in September last year. The leak prevented two cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut from returning to earth.
Reported CNNThe launch of the spacecraft, called Soyuz MS-23, took place from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan on Thursday at 7:24 p.m. ET, or 5:24 a.m. Friday local time.
The unmanned spacecraft spent about two days in orbit, maneuvering toward the International Space Station. It then docked with the Poisk module — which is on the Russian side of the space station — just before 8 p.m. ET Saturday.
Soyuz MS-23 will be the return vehicle for cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio who were stranded in space and unable to return home due to the leak. They had all traveled to the space station in the Soyuz MS-22 capsule in September.
Instead of flying with a crew member, the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft launched Thursday with just a “Zero-G indicator,” which can be any object designed to float freely when the capsule enters microgravity. For this mission, the indicator is a teddy bear tethered by a rope in the cabin.
In September last year, the MS-22 developed a coolant leak, leaving the cabin at temperatures deemed unsafe for the crew to use on their return journey.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos and NASA quickly worked out plans to send a replacement vehicle. Roscosmos officials said they had determined that the leak was caused by a pinhole caused by an impact with a micrometeoroid.
Initially, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara were expected to return to Earth on March 16 with MS-23. However, their tenure on the Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio space stations was extended and they could return to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-23 later this year. It is estimated that all three will arrive on Earth in September this year, according to a report from Russia’s state-run TASS media outlet.
This means the three crew members will extend their estimated six-month stay in space to about a year.
When asked about the extended stay, Joel Montalbano, space station program manager for NASA, said the crew remained in good health and there was no reason to rush their return journey.
(hsy/hsy)
