MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. The Soyuz MS-23 manned spacecraft re-docked from the Poisk mini-research module to the Prichal nodal compartment of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced in a live broadcast on its website on Thursday.
The re-docking maneuver was carried out by Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev in manual mode. TASS special reporter in space, Roscosmos cosmonaut Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio stayed inside the spacecraft together with Prokopyev during the re-docking maneuver, it said.
The Soyuz MS-23 spaceship detached from the orbital outpost at 11:45 a.m. Moscow time.
As Roscosmos reported earlier, the re-docking maneuver was required to provide for safe extra-vehicular activity under a Russian program. The spacewalks by Prokopyev and Petelin are scheduled for spring/summer of this year. The crew is actively preparing for this activity, it said.
The crewless Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft lifted off on February 24 and docked to the orbital outpost two days later. The spaceship delivered almost 430 kg of cargo to the space station, including equipment for scientific experiments and foodstuffs.
The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is expected to bring back to Earth Roscosmos cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petelin and NASA astronaut Rubio, whose mission aboard the orbital outpost has been extended after the docked Soyuz MS-22 spaceship sustained damage in December 2022.