MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/. Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin, who is also a TASS special correspondent, and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio have transferred from the International Space Station (ISS) to the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft and closed the hatches before returning to Earth, according to a broadcast livestreamed on the Russian state aerospace corporation's website.

The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft will undock from the Prichal module at 10:55 a.m. Moscow time on Wednesday and begin an autonomous flight. At approximately 1:24 p.m., the spacecraft will fire its engines for a deorbit burn. The touchdown is expected to take place southeast of the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan at 2:17 p.m. Moscow time.

Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio arrived at the ISS on September 21, 2022. They were initially expected to return to the Earth this spring, but their mission had to be extended until September 27 due to a coolant leak from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which occurred on December 15, 2022.

In order to ensure the safe return of the two cosmonauts and one astronaut, the spacecraft was sent to the ISS in crewless mode.

Cosmonauts and an astronaut transferred from the ISS to the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft and closed the hatches.