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Belarusian cosmonaut’s flight may be postponed due to Soyuz MS-22 incident

The space corporation stressed that specific flight dates would be approved later

MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. The flight of a female cosmonaut from Belarus, originally scheduled for autumn of this year, may be postponed by several months due to the incident with the Soyuz MS-22 crewed spacecraft in December 2022, when the space vehicle’s radiator was damaged, Roscosmos corporation told TASS on Thursday.

"The flight of the first cosmonaut from Belarus on the Russian crewed spacecraft Soyuz MS will take place as planned. Due to an emergency on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, docked to the ISS, the mission may be postponed," Roscosmos said.

The space corporation added that specific flight dates would be approved later.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, following talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, confirmed the intention to send a Belarusian cosmonaut to the International Space Station in 2023. The Belarusian side selected six female candidates. At the end of December, a medical board released recommendations regarding their suitability for further training for the space mission. Belarus will now pick the main and standby candidates.

On December 15, 2022, the external part of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft’s thermal control radiator developed a leak. After analyzing the situation, the state commission opted for the damaged spacecraft’s crewless reentry. Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, whose mission had to be extended by several months, will travel back to Earth on the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft.

Before the emergency, it had been assumed that the Soyuz MS-23 would fly to the ISS on March 16. Now its launch is scheduled for February 20. The crew that was to go to the ISS in the spring of 2023 will have to wait till the autumn.