ISS, February 1. /TASS/. The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) will be adjusted on Wednesday afternoon, TASS special reporter in space, Roscosmos cosmonaut Dmitry Petelin said.
The maneuver is required for preparing ballistic conditions before the launch of a Progress MS-22 resupply ship, the landing of the damaged Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft and the crewless launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spaceship as a replacement vehicle, he specified.
The Progress MS-22 space freighter is scheduled to take off on February 9 and the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on February 20, Petelin said.
The space mission of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank 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.
On November 17, 2021, Russia’s world-renowned TASS news agency and the State Space Corporation Roscosmos signed a memorandum of cooperation, under which a TASS news office was established aboard the ISS. Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin was the first TASS special reporter in space. His flight lasted 12 days. Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was the second TASS special reporter in space. Presently, Dmitry Petelin is heading the TASS outer space-based branch.