MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. The Soyuz MS-22 cargo spaceship with the damaged external radiator will return to the Earth in an unmanned mode in March, Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos said on Friday.

"The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft will return home in March 2023," it wrote on its Telegram channel.

According to Roscosmos, there will be no cosmonauts aboard. "The unmanned Soyuz will take cargo and scientific equipment to the Earth. Yesterday, Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Anna Kikina arranged them for the flight," it added.

The mission of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio was extended due to a leak from the external radiator of the thermal control system of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which occurred on December 15.

After analyzing the situation, the state commission decided to return the damaged Soyuz MS-22 without a crew. The cosmonauts, whose mission was extended by several months, will travel back to Earth on the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft.

Before the emergency, it was assumed that the Soyuz MS-23 would fly to the ISS on March 16.