MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. Cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio will return to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft in September this year, Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Tuesday.

"Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Francisco Rubio were initially scheduled to land aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spaceship on March 28, 2023. Now the plans envisage their landing aboard the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft in September 2023," Roscosmos said in a statement posted on its website.

The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft as a replacement vehicle for the damaged Soyuz MS-22 spaceship is set to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on February 26, Roscosmos said.

"Based on the information received, the state commission made a decision on launching the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft to the ISS in crewless mode. The launch is scheduled for February 24 with its docking to the station on February 26," Roscosmos said.

The docking with the orbital outpost is scheduled for 04:01 a.m. Moscow time on February 26, it specified.

The Soyuz MS-23 is intended to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 spaceship and bring the ISS crew comprising Roscosmos cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petelin and NASA astronaut Rubio back to Earth. The spaceship can also be used for the crew’s emergency return in case of any anomaly, it said.

Roscosmos earlier announced that the damaged Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was set to land in crewless mode in March this year.

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.

Currently, Roscosmos cosmonauts Prokopyev, Petelin who is also a TASS special reporter in space, and Anna Kikina, NASA astronauts Josh Cassada, Frank Rubio and Nicole Mann and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata are working aboard the orbital outpost.