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Landing of Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft with cosmonauts on board due Sept. 27

The re-docking of the ship from the Poisk small research module to the Nodal module will take place on April 6

© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

KOROLEV /Moscow Region/, February 24. /TASS/. The landing of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, bringing back to the earth Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokofyev and Dmitry Petelin, as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, is scheduled for September 27, according to the Russian Mission Control Center’s data.

"Landing in the designated area [will take place] on 27.09.2023," the center said.

The spacecraft, which blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) at 03:24 a.m. Moscow time on Friday, will be moved from the Poisk module of the Russian ISS segment to the Prichal nodal module on April 6. The reason for this operation was not explained.

The spacecraft was launched atop the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 03:24 a.m. Moscow time on February 24. Approximately nine minutes later, it separated from the upper stage of the rocket.

The spacecraft’s journey to the International Space Station (ISS) will be carried out under the two-day scheme. Its docking with the Poisk module of the Russian segment of the ISS is scheduled for 04:01 a.m. Moscow time on February 26.

On December 15, 2022, the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the orbital outpost experienced a coolant leak on its external radiator. 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 Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, whose mission has been prolonged for several months, aboard the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft. Initially, it was planned to send Soyuz MS-23 to space in mid-March, to take the next ISS mission to the orbital outpost. Russian space industry specialists have carried out special investigations to find out that the Soyuz MS-22 was damaged by a sporadic micrometeoroid.

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