Crew stuck on ISS to return to Earth in September after a year in orbit: Russia

Name: Unexplained leak on International Space Station delays Russian spacewalk
Uploaded: 2023-02-21T08:33:08.000Z
Duration: 1 min 7 s
Description: Unexplained leak on International Space Station delays Russian spacewalk

Before the leak, the trio had been due to return to Earth on March 28. Russia plans to send a rescue ship on February 24

They were scheduled to return in the same spacecraft they left in, but it began leaking coolant in mid-December after being hit by a tiny space rock

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

The crew stuck on the International Space Station because of a damaged capsule is now expected to return to Earth in September, a year after they first launched into orbit. Photo: via Reuters

Agence France-PresseandReuters

Published: 4:33pm, 21 Feb 2023Updated: 4:55pm, 21 Feb 2023

Russia’s space agency on Tuesday said that the crew stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) because of a damaged capsule were now expected to return to Earth in September, a year after they first launched into orbit.

Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergei Prokopyev and Nasa astronaut Frank Rubio flew to the ISS in September 2022 aboard a Soyuz MS-22 capsule.

They were scheduled to return home in the same spacecraft, but it began leaking coolant in mid-December after being hit by what US and Russian space officials believe was a tiny space rock.

Russia plans to send a rescue ship, a Soyuz MS-23, on February 24 that will arrive at the ISS on February 26.

01:07

Unexplained leak on International Space Station delays Russian spacewalk

Before the leak, the trio had been due to return to Earth on March 28, 2023.

But on Tuesday, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said in a statement that their return “at the moment is scheduled to take place aboard the Soyuz MS-23 in September 2023”.