Russian Soyuz capsule docks with ISS
February 26, 2023
An uncrewed Russian spacecraft docked with the International Space Station (ISS), Russian space agency Roscosmos said early Sunday.
It had lifted off from Baikonour space centre in Kazakhstan on Friday.
"Today at 03:58 Moscow time (00:58 UTC/GMT), the Soyuz MS-23 unmanned spacecraft docked to the Poisk module of the International Space Station in automatic mode," Roscosmos said on Telegram.
The Poisk is a docking module at the ISS.
The Soyuz M-23 has been sent to bring back Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, and US astronaut Francisco Rubio in September. It carried 429 kg of additional cargo to the station, needed to extend the astronauts' mission, Russian agencies reported.
The three were due to end their mission in March, but were unable to leave after the cooling system of their Soyuz MS-22 capsule started leaking two months ago.
The MS-22 ship will now be brought back unmanned next month.
Yuri Borisov, chief executive of Roscosmos, said that the next space walk of the Russian cosmonauts at the station will take place in April or May.
tg/sms (AFP, Reuters)