Russia Set A New Date To Take Astronauts From The ISS On Rescue Ships

Russia has set a new date to send rescue ships to the International Space Station (ISS) (photo: Twitter @nasa)

JAKARTA - Russia has set a new date to send rescue ships to the International Space Station (ISS) to retrieve three astronauts who returned with the leaked Soyuz capsule in December.

The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, told AFP on Saturday 18 February that it is targeting the launch of MS-23, an unmanned Soyuz spacecraft, on February 24. MS-23 is scheduled to bring back the cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio of the ISS.

Roscosmos postponed the mission last Monday after Progress 82, a supply ship that has docked on the ISS since last October, leaked cooling liquids over the weekend.

Petelin, Prokopyev, and Rubio flew to the space station in September, and were supposed to return using the same Soyuz capsule. However, in December, the capsule leaked due to exposure to a meteoroid.

A month later, Roscosmos announced that they would send a second Soyuz capsule to retrieve the three astronauts. On Saturday, Roscosmos said that it had carefully inspected the rescue ship to ensure that the ship was not damaged and ready to fly.

One day earlier, Progress 82 was separated from the ISS. According to NASA, Progress 82 will burn to re-enter the atmosphere at 10:15 p.m. local time on Saturday.

If Roscosmos does not delay the launch of the MS-23, the spacecraft will arrive on the ISS two days before SpaceX's Crew-6 mission which is scheduled to launch on February 26. The Crew-6 mission will carry two NASA astronauts, an United Arab Emirates astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut to the space station.