Faulty Russian Soyuz MS-22 spaceship undocks from ISS

KOROLYOV, Moscow region. March 28 (Interfax) - Russia's Soyuz MS-22 spaceship with a damaged radiator has undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) unmanned to prepare for landing in Kazakhstan, an Interfax correspondent reported from the Mission Control Center.

According to the Mission Control Center, the spaceship separated from the Rassvet research module of the ISS' Russian segment at 12:57 p.m.

The Soyuz MS-22's engines will be started at 1:51 p.m. for braking and leaving orbit, and the spaceship will be divided into sections at 2:19 p.m.

The capsule is due to land at 2:45 p.m. 147 kilometers southeast of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

As reported earlier, about 218 kilograms of cargo, including the results of scientific experiments and the station's equipment, will travel back to Earth on board the Soyuz MS-22 for analysis or further use.

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

The Soyuz MS-22 with a Russian-U.S. crew docked with the ISS on September 21, 2022. Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio operated the spaceship. They will return to Earth in the second half of 2023 on the Soyuz MS-23 that arrived at the ISS on February 26.