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Russia launching mission to rescue astronauts stranded in space [1]
['David Pescovitz']
Date: 2023-01-11
Last month, Russia's Soyuz MS-22 space capsule was hit by a meteoroid while docked at the International Space Station. The capsule sprung a leak, spraying coolant into space. After the MS-22 was deemed unsafe for travel, Russia's Roscocosmos space agency faced a challenge. Currently, the only way off the space station is aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft which has space for four people. There are currently seven astronauts at the space station. In the coming weeks, Russia will launch their Soyus MS-23 rocket to the ISS to bring home Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and US astronaut Francisco Rubio. From The Guardian:
If a "particularly critical" situation arose on the ISS in the weeks before then, Roscosmos said, the possibility of using the damaged Soyuz MS-22 to rescue the crew would be considered.
MS-23 was initially planned to take up three crew members but will head up empty as a rescue vessel. The Roscosmos chief, Yuri Borisov, did not say when Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio would return to Earth in the backup Soyuz.
The damaged MS-22 will return without a crew once its replacement arrives, Roscosmos added.
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