The new Russian spacecraft has successfully docked with the orbital station and will be able to rescue three astronauts in case of danger.
The unmanned Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-23 automatically docked with the International Space Station at 03:00 Kiev time on Sunday, February 26. This ship will replace the damaged RF ship, thus becoming a rescue vehicle for the three astronauts and transporting them to Earth. But that will happen in just six months, Space writes.
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Launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday, February 24, and carrying supplies and necessary equipment for astronauts, the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft docked with the ISS on the night of February 26, as planned. Automatic docking took place with a Russian ISS module called Poisk.
At the same time, SpaceX is preparing to launch the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which is supposed to go to the ISS with a Falcon 9 rocket on Monday morning, February 27, from a spaceport in Florida, USA. This ship will deliver four new crew members to the orbital station: Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg of NASA. Sultan Al-Neyadi from the UAE and Andrey Fedyaev, representative of the Russian Federation. The spacecraft will take astronauts to the ISS early Tuesday, February 28.
These astronauts will replace NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Kassada, Japanese Koichi Wakata and Russian Anna Kikina, who will return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on March 6.
The main task of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, which docked at the orbital station at an altitude of 418 km from the Earth, is to deliver the Russians to their homes, as well as the Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin. American Frank Rubio. They won’t be returning home anytime soon, however, around September of this year. Until then, the new ship will act as a “lifeboat” in the event of a major accident on the ISS, which is highly unlikely.
Another Soyuz spacecraft, which the trio arrived at the ISS in September last year, failed in December after being struck by a meteorite. As a result, the cooling system was damaged. After analyzing the situation, Roskosmos decided to send a new Soyuz into orbit, originally planned to replace Petelin, Prokopyev and Rubio, to the ISS in March of this year.
Due to the fact that the backup crew will not fly to the ISS in March, the launch of the new Soyuz spacecraft is expected only in September of this year. As a result, the three astronauts arriving at the station with the already decommissioned Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-22 will spend a full year in space. Although there is a possibility of returning to Earth sooner, as NASA previously reported.
As already written Focus, a series of accidents haunt the Russian spacecraft to the ISS. Two months after the accident on the Soyuz, damage to the cooling system was detected on the Progress cargo ship belonging to the Russian Federation. According to Roscosmos, this ship was also hit by a meteorite and has already been successfully sunk into the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
Moreover Focus He wrote about how the launch of the new Soyuz recovery spacecraft, already docked with the orbital station, took place.
Source: Focus
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