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Descent module of damaged Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft lands in Kazakhstan

About 218 kilograms of cargo, including the results of research experiments and equipment for analysis and reuse returned to Earth

KOROLYOV, March 28. /TASS/. The descent module of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft without a crew has landed southeast of the Kazakh city of Jezkazgan, a TASS correspondent reports from Mission Control.

The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which in December suffered a depressurization of the external loop of the thermal control system, undocked from the ISS on Tuesday at 12:57 p.m. Moscow time. The damaged part was in the instrument and equipment compartment, which had separated from the descent vehicle as planned and burned up in the atmosphere.

About 218 kilograms of cargo, including the results of research experiments and equipment for analysis and reuse returned to Earth in the descent module. Of special interest to experts is the spacesuit’s battery that lost charge during a spacewalk by Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveyev last August, the results of the Cascade mushroom growing experiment and the Probiovit experiment to create a probiotic drink in space.

The Soyuz MS-22, named after Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, blasted off on September 21, 2022 to deliver to the ISS Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio. The launch was the first under an agreement between Roscosmos and NASA to conduct cross-flights.

On December 15, 2022, the external loop of the Soyuz MS-22’s thermal control system developed a leak. The state commission decided to return the damaged ship in a crewless mode. Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio, whose mission has been extended, will fly back in the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft. Experts in the rocket and space industry found out that the Soyuz MS-22 had been damaged as a result of a sporadic meteoroid impact.

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