The International Space Station (ISS) has received a Russian spacecraft on a mission to return a crew trapped there to Earth, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced early on Sunday.
The three were supposed to wrap up their assignment in March. Their Soyuz MS-22 capsule’s cooling system began to leak two months ago, leaving them stranded in orbit. The Soyuz MS-22 ship will now return unmanned the following month.
The Soyuz MS-23 unmanned spacecraft docked to the Poisk module of the International Space Station in automated mode today at 03:58 Moscow time (00:58 GMT), according to a statement from Roscosmos on the Telegram messaging app.
A docking module at the ISS is called Poisk.
The next space walk by Russian cosmonauts at the station will happen in April or May, CEO of Roscosmos.
To extend the crew’ mission, the Soyuz MS-23 ship transported 429 kilograms (946 lb) of extra cargo to the station.
