Russia Launches Uncrewed Replacement Soyuz Capsule For Expedition 69 Crew Stranded At The Space Station

The Russian un-crewed Soyuz capsule MS-23 lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, at 0024 UTC on Friday, Feb. 24; and is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station, ISS, on Saturday. The spacecraft will give Expedition 69 crew members -- cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio -- a ride home, two months after the discovery of a coolant leak on their older Soyuz MS-22 which is docked to the ISS.

"A nominal ascent into orbit for Soyuz MS-23," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live launch brodcast. "A perfect ride to orbit for the vehicle that will bring home Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin later this year."

While the discovery of the leaky MS-22 posed no immediate threat to the ISS or its activities, Russian federal space agency Roscosmos determined a new Soyuz was needed. The MS-23 was scheduled to fly a normal crew replacement mission for the late spring. Roscosmos pushed up an un-crewed launch to Feb. 19. It is instead carrying 945 pounds of supplies and a toy teddy bear to serve as a weightlessness indicator.

Troubles for Expedition 69 crew members began on Dec. 14, after their MS-22 sprung a coolant leak. Initially there were options to bring them home in the case of an emergency; two cosmonauts could use the damaged capsule, Roscosmos said, as they would heat up the spacecraft to a lesser degree than all three. Rubio, meanwhile, would use an extra seat on the already docked SpaceX Crew-5 spacecraft, joining four other astronauts should the need vacate the ISS arise.

The schedule of launching MS-23 was initially complicated after a Progress-82 freighter coolant leak at the ISS on Feb. 11.

The two coolant leaks, Roscosmos officials determined, were not related and were caused by separate micrometeoroid strikes on each spacecraft. Nevertheless, the schedule shuffle has caused a big change to ISS activities: The Expedition 69 crew members will extend their time in space to September 2023. The extra time will allow Roscosmos to launch yet another Soyuz, the crewed MS-24, -- likely in September -- to serve as relief for Expedition 69 crew.

At first, Roscosmos held off M-23's launch until March, in case M-22 and Progress-82 had related leaks. However fresh pictures of '82' after the scheduled undocking on Feb. 17, allowed the space agency to push through Friday's Soyuz launch.

Friday's launch comes days before SpaceX launches Crew-6 mission  for NASA, expected to take place on Feb. 26. The crew-6 is made up of: the first United Arab Emirates astronaut to perform a long-duration mission (Sultan Al-Neyadi), NASA astronauts Warren "Woody" Hoburg and Stephen Bowen, and Andrey Fedyaev of Russian space agency Roscosmos.

WATCH the liftoff of Soyuz M-23 from Baikonur Cosmodrome