Russia’s Soyuz capsule docks with the ISS – DW – 02/26/2023

The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said early Sunday that an unmanned Russian spacecraft has docked at the International Space Station.

It was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Friday.

“Today at 03:58 Moscow time (00:58 UTC / GMT), the unmanned Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft docked to the Poisk module of the International Space Station in automatic mode,” Roscosmos said on Telegram.

Poisk is a docking unit in International Space Station.

Soyuz M-23 was sent to bring back Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin and American cosmonaut Francisco Rubio in September. Russian agencies reported that the plane carried 429 kilograms of additional cargo to the station needed to extend the astronauts’ mission.

The three were scheduled to finish their mission in March, but were unable to leave after the cooling system of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule began leaking two months earlier.

The MS-22 unmanned ship will now be returned next month.

Yuri Borisov, CEO RoscosmosHe said it the next day Space walk of Russian cosmonauts at the station will take place in April or May.