Russia targets February 24th for Soyuz MS-22 crew rescue launch | Engadget

Russia has set a brand new date for when it can journey to the Worldwide Area Station to select up three astronauts whose Soyuz spacecraft was compromised. The nation’s Roscosmos area company on Saturday plans to launch MS-23, an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft, on Saturday to return cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, in addition to NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, from the Worldwide Area Station.

Roscosmos postponed the mission final Monday after Progress 82, a provide ship that had been docked with the ISS since final October, began up. Petelin, Prokopiev and Rubio flew to the area station in September, they usually have been alleged to return on the identical Soyuz spacecraft that took them there. Nevertheless, in December, an obvious meteorite influence prompted a leak from the spacecraft. In a month, Roscosmos will ship a second Soyuz spacecraft to select up three astronauts. The timing of the leaks led to the Soyuz leak being attributable to a producing downside, not an errant area rock, as Roscosmos claimed. Earlier this week, the company launched photographs (see above) exhibiting the situation of the coolant leak and stories of a micrometeorite influence.

On Saturday, Roscosmos stated it had completely inspected the rescue craft to make sure it was undamaged and prepared for flight. A day earlier, Progress 82 separated from the ISS. trans video broadcast throughout the undocking process confirmed no apparent indicators of injury to the provision boat. , Progress 82 will start deorbiting right this moment at 10:15 p.m. ET. If Roscosmos doesn’t delay the launch of MS-23, the spacecraft will arrive on the ISS two days earlier than the launch of Area X, scheduled for February 26. This flight will ship two NASA astronauts, an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates and a Russian cosmonaut to the area station.