Unmanned descent of faulty Soyuz MS-22 planned for late March

MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - The faulty Soyuz MS-22 spaceship's unmanned decent has been planned for late March, said Vladimir Solovyov, flight director for the Russian segment of International Space Station (ISS).

"This spaceship [Soyuz MS-22] is still unmanned. We are planning to do it at the end of March, we can count on the successful return of this Soyuz," Solovyov said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel (VGTRK).

According to him, the spaceship will bring 200-250 kilograms of cargo to Earth.

Roscosmos Executive Director for Manned Space Programs Sergei Krikalev said on January 11 that the damaged Soyuz MS-22 spaceship would undock from the ISS a week or two after the arrival of Soyuz MS-23.

According to him, the capsule will touch down in the standard landing area in Kazakhstan.

The chief of general designers proposed on February 18 that the state commission authorize the unmanned launch of Soyuz MS-23 as a replacement for Soyuz MS-22 on February 24.

Roscosmos said on December 15, 2022, that Russian cosmonauts had cancelled a spacewalk from the ISS because of depressurization of an external radiator's contour. Roscosmos head Yury Borisov said on January 11 that an analysis confirmed the ship's damage by a micrometeorite. A piece of space debris is deemed to be responsible for the 1mm hole in the skin of the spaceship's assist module. The faulty Soyuz MS-22 is supposed to land unmanned.