Russia to launch mission to rescue stranded ISS crew after meteoroid strike

Moscow will launch a rescue vessel to the International Space Station next month to bring home three crew members who are in effect stuck in orbit after their original capsule was hit by a meteoroid.

The docked Soyuz MS-22 sprang a major leak last month, spraying radiator coolant into space and prompting a pair of cosmonauts to abort a planned spacewalk.

After deliberations, Roscosmos said it has decided to bring forward a planned March launch of the Soyuz MS-23 to 20 February so it can be used to transport the Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and the US astronaut Francisco Rubio back to Earth.

MS-23 was initially planned to take up three crew members but will head up empty as a rescue vessel. The Roscosmos chief, Yuri Borisov, did not say when Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio would return to Earth in the backup Soyuz.

The damaged MS-22 will return without a crew once its replacement arrives, Roscosmos added.

Roscosmos said the diameter of the micrometeoroid that hit the docked Soyuz was tiny, creating a hole in the capsule that was only 1mm in diameter. It caused significant damage, with Nasa TV images showing white particles resembling snowflakes streaming out of the rear.

Space has remained a rare area of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since Russia invaded Ukraine.