- Russia will delay the launch of the Soyuz MS-23 ship, scheduled for February 20 to return Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Frank Rubio from the ISS
- Roscosmos and the U.S. space agency NASA had earlier announced the planned launch of the ship to bring back the two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut
- In a video statement, Roscosmos head Yury Borisov said a decision had been taken to push back the launch while they investigate a pressure loss in another module
MOSCOW, Russia: Russia is set to delay the launch of the Soyuz MS-23 ship, scheduled for February 20 to return Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Frank Rubio from the International Space Station, while they investigate a pressure loss in another module.
Roscosmos and the U.S. space agency NASA had earlier announced the planned launch of the ship to bring back the two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut.
In a video statement, Roscosmos head Yury Borisov said a decision had been taken to push back the launch. In the meanwhile, he said the team would investigate the cause of a pressure loss in the cooling system of the Progress MS-21 cargo ship, which is due to undock from the ISS on Feb. 18.
Borisov also showed pictures that American colleagues had taken with a robot arm of the external damage believed to have caused a loss of pressure on Dec. 15 in the cooling system of another module docked to the ISS, Soyuz MS-22.
Despite tense relations due to the Ukraine war, Russia and the United States still collaborate closely on the ISS.
