MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. The Soyuz MS-23 manned spacecraft will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in crewless automatic mode on the morning of February 20 to bring Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio back to Earth, the Russian space agency said in a statement on Friday.
"The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-23 is scheduled for 04:57 a.m. Moscow time on February 20," Roscosmos said on its Telegram.
The spacecraft’s solar arrays have been checked. Work is nearing completion to install special equipment and gear in the descent capsule and the crew compartment, it said.
The space mission of Roscosmos cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petelin and NASA astronaut Rubio has been extended after a coolant loop on an external radiator of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the orbital outpost experienced a leak on December 15.
After analyzing the situation, Russia’s state commission made a decision to bring the damaged Soyuz spacecraft back to Earth in crewless mode and return the cosmonauts whose mission has been prolonged for several months aboard the Soyuz MS-23 spaceship.
Before the emergency, the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft was intended to launch to the ISS on March 16.