The “lifeboat” is coming: As a replacement for a damaged space shuttle in space, an unmanned capsule is to start on Friday night for the International Space Station ISS. The Soyuz MS-23 is scheduled to lift off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:24 a.m. CET and dock at the station on Sunday at 2:01 a.m. CET.
The unusual mission is necessary because the MS-22 ferry docked at the ISS has a leak – probably caused by a micrometeorite. The liquid escaping from the cooling system makes the return of two Russians and an American seem risky.
If “lifeboat” MS-23 arrives as planned, cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio will probably fly home from mankind’s outpost in the fall. In the meantime, the damaged MS-22 capsule could fly back from the ISS unmanned.
20 years of cooperation
Russia and the USA have been working closely together on the space station around 400 kilometers above the earth for more than 20 years. However, the relationship had fallen into a serious crisis because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Now the leak on the Soyuz MS-22 required close coordination.
A “Crew Dragon” ferry is also docked at the ISS. The US space agency Nasa made it available as a temporary emergency spacecraft after discussions with operator SpaceX, Elon Musk’s private space company. This was seen as a possible step towards rapprochement between Russia and the USA in space travel. The current start in Baikonur is also particularly symbolic – it takes place exactly on the anniversary of the beginning of the war. According to experts, however, this has technical reasons.
“Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine dramatically aggravated the situation,” Europe’s former space chief Jan Wörner told the German Press Agency. The many joint activities were stopped at that time and even the future of the ISS was questioned. “Fortunately something like normality has returned to the cooperation in the ISS, so that an American should also come back to earth on board a Soyuz,” said the current President of the German Academy of Science and Engineering.
A decision by the scientific and technical council of the Russian space agency Roskosmos would fit in with this. According to the state agency TASS, he decided a few days ago “after detailed consultations” to continue using the Russian segment of the ISS until 2028.
Communication from NASA
