Lifeboat mission: Soyuz MS-23 blasts off to bring back stranded cosmonauts from International Space Station

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft blasted off on Friday for the International Space Station (ISS) from where it will bring back to Earth a crew stranded due to a leak in the cooling system of their original return capsule. The unmanned Soyuz spacecraft took off for a two-day journey from Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at 7:24 pm ET, and the mission also includes making repairs to the capsule.

In December, the cooling system of a Soyuz MS-22 capsule started leaking, apparently from a micrometeoroid hit, that is a tiny particle of space rock, leaving Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and US astronaut Francisco Rubio, stranded. "The cause of the leak may be a micrometeorite entering the radiator," TASS had quoted Sergei Krikalev, a former cosmonaut and head of the crewed space flight program for Russia's space corporation Roscosmos, as saying. "Possible consequences are changes in the temperature regime."

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Their mission was due to end in March, but the coolant leak meant that they were stuck at the ISS for longer. Roscosmos informed earlier this weekthat the trio will return to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-23 in September. The damaged MS-22 spacecraft will land without a crew in March.

The cosmonauts will be staying aboard the ISS till September in order to avoid a staffing void.

The Soyuz MS-23 is due to dock Saturday evening. You can catch the spacecraft docking LIVE on NASA's livestream which will start at 7:15 pm ET.

What had happened to Soyuz MS-22?

NASA said that a micrometeorite strike led to the coolant leak, impacting the integrity of the spacecraft which now could neither be used to take refuge, nor as a return vehicle. The micrometeorite made a hole in the MS-22’s radiator, resulting in the coolant to leak into space. Since now it wasn't possible to regulate the capsule’s cabin temperature, Roscosmos deemed the spacecraft unsafe.

Surprisingly, a second leak was reported on the cooling system of the Progress MS-21 cargo ship earlier this month. This prompted a slight delay in the MS-23 mission which was originally supposed to launch last week. Roscosmos again blamed the leak on an “external impact” and did not say anything about a common manufacturing defect.

What are micrometeoroids?

Tiny micrometeoroids are nothing but space rocks, mostly as small as a grain of sand. They are a common part of the space environment and are not known to cause heavy damage to the ISS and other spacecraft that are protected by advanced shielding.

(With inputs from agencies)

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