The new Russian spacecraft has successfully docked to the orbital station and will be able to rescue three astronauts in case of danger.
The unmanned Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-23 made an automatic docking with the International Space Station at 3 am Kyiv time on Sunday, February 26. This ship will replace the damaged RF ship and thus become a rescue vehicle for three astronauts and take them to Earth. But this will happen only in six months, writes Space.
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Launched on Friday, February 24 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, carrying supplies and necessary equipment for astronauts, docked with the ISS as planned on the night of February 26. The automatic docking took place with a Russian ISS module called Poisk.
The launch of the Soyuz spacecraft on Friday, February 24
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At the same time, SpaceX has already prepared for launch from a spaceport in Florida, USA, its Crew Dragon spacecraft, which should go to the ISS on the morning of Monday, February 27 on a Falcon 9 rocket. This ship will deliver four new crew members to the orbital station : Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg from NASA, Sultan Al-Neyadi from the UAE and the representative of the Russian Federation Andrey Fedyaev. The spacecraft will take the astronauts to the ISS in the early hours of Tuesday, February 28.
Launched on Friday, February 24 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, carrying supplies and necessary equipment for astronauts, docked with the ISS as planned on the night of February 26. Automatic docking occurred with the Russian module of the ISS called “Poisk”
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These astronauts will replace NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Kassada, Japanese Koichi Wakata and Russian Anna Kikina, who will return to Earth on March 6 aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The unmanned Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-23 made an automatic docking with the International Space Station at 3 am Kyiv time on Sunday, February 26. This ship will replace the damaged RF ship and thus become a rescue vehicle for three astronauts and deliver them to Earth
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Photo: NASA
As for the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, which docked to the orbital station when it was at an altitude of 418 km above the Earth, its main task is to ensure the delivery home of the Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin, as well as the American Frank Rubio. But they will not return home soon, but around September of this year. Until then, the new ship will act as a “lifeboat” in case a significant accident occurs on the ISS, which is very unlikely.
At the same time, SpaceX has already prepared for launch from a spaceport in Florida, USA, its Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is due to go to the ISS on Monday morning, February 27. This ship will deliver four new crew members to the orbital station: Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg from NASA, Sultan Al-Neyadi from the UAE and Russian representative Andrey Fedyaev. The spacecraft will take astronauts to the ISS early Tuesday, February 28
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Photo: SpaceX
Another Soyuz spacecraft, on which the trio arrived at the ISS back in September last year, failed in December after being hit by a meteorite. As a result, the cooling system was damaged. After analyzing the situation, Roskosmos decided to send a new Soyuz into orbit, which was originally intended to deliver to the ISS in March of this year a replacement for Petelin, Prokopyev and Rubio.
Due to the fact that the replacement crew will not fly to the ISS in March, the launch of the new Soyuz spacecraft is supposed to take place only in September of this year. As a result, the three astronauts who arrived at the station on the already out of order Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-22 will spend a whole year in space. Although there is a possibility that they will be able to return to Earth earlier, as NASA has already reported.
As Focus already wrote, a series of accidents haunts Russian spacecraft to the ISS. Two months after the accident on the Soyuz, damage to the cooling system was noticed on the Progress cargo ship of the Russian Federation. According to Roskosmos, this ship was also hit by a meteorite and has already been successfully sunk in the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
Focus also wrote about how the launch of the new Soyuz rescue spacecraft, which has already been docked with the orbital station, took place.
