Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday the three astronauts who were left stranded by a pressure leak in their return capsule last year will be able to return on the Soyuz MS-23 replacement capsule in September 2023.
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.
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.”
The launch of the rescue Soyuz capsule was itself postponed earlier this month after another vessel — a Russian supply ship docked at the ISS, the Progress MS-21 — had also leaked coolant, sparking concern.
