Space has remained a rare venue of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine and ensuing Western sanctions on Russia and arming of Ukraine.
from thefreeonline on 24 Feb 2023 by Al Jazeera (shared with thanks)
The crew of the International Space Station poses for a group photo. Starting at far right and moving clockwise: Soyuz flight engineer Dmitri Petelin, Soyuz commander Sergey Prokopyev, Soyuz passenger/NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, Crew-5 commander Nicole Mann and her three crewmates, cosmonaut Anna Kikina, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and Crew-5 pilot Josh Cassada. / Credit: NASA
Soyuz MS-23 will transport Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin, Sergei Prokopyev and NASA’s Frank Rubio back to Earth later this year.
Russia has launched an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft on a rescue mission to return two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut whose trip back to Earth has been hampered after their original space vehicle was damaged by a mini meteorite while parked at the International Space Station (ISS).
The Soyuz MS-23 vessel blasted off successfully from the Russian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday, live video broadcast by ISS partner NASA showed……
Though the MS-23 is scheduled to dock with the ISS early on Sunday morning Moscow time, it is not expected to bring home Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergei Prokopyev, and US astronaut Frank Rubio until later this year.
The three arrived at the ISS in September 2022 onboard the MS-22 spacecraft and were originally to stay about six months until the end of March. But the MS-22 began to leak coolant in December after an apparent micro-meteorite punctured an external radiator.
The same thing appeared to happen again earlier this month, this time on a docked Russian cargo ship. Camera views showed a small hole in each spacecraft………
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