MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th February, 2023) The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) has been prepared for the return of the faulty Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which has suffered a coolant leak, back to Earth, Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said on Monday.
"Today, the orbit of the ISS has been corrected to ensure the landing of the unmanned Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft back on Earth," a statement read.
Roscosmos added that�the orbit's average altitude had grown by 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) to 418.9 kilometers following the correction.
The maneuver was carried out with the engines of the Progress MS-22 cargo spacecraft docked to the Zvezda service module of the ISS Russian segment, the statement read.
The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft suffered depressurization of a thermal circuit on December 14, 2022, shortly before the spacewalk within the Russian program. Due to a non-functioning cooling system, the space corporation decided to send the next Soyuz MS-23 spaceship to the ISS a little earlier than planned to bring back the crew, including Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, as well as US astronaut Frank Rubio. Soyuz MS-22 will be grounded without a crew after a new spacecraft arrives.
