'Leaky' Uncrewed Russian Capsule Undocks From Space Station — To Land On Earth Today

The Soyuz MS-22 crew ship undocked from the International Space Station for Earth without a crew aboard on Tuesday morning.

What Happened: The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft undocked from the Space Station at 5:57 a.m. EDT, NASA said in a statement. The passenger-less vehicle will parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan less than two hours later at 7:45 a.m., the statement added.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin arrived at the space station aboard the Soyuz on Sept. 21. Now that the spacecraft has departed, the three will continue their stay in space for a yearlong mission.

The trio is due to return to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-23 crew ship in September.

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Expedition 69 at the space station officially began with the undocking. Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev is the station commander for the crew.

The crew consists of NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen, Woody Hoburg, and Frank Rubio, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Andrey Fedyaev and Dmitri Petelin.

An external coolant leak was reported on the Soyuz MS-22 crew ship in December, earning the spacecraft its nickname “leaky Soyuz”. At the time of the leak, Roscosmos cosmonauts were preparing to conduct a spacewalk which was then postponed.

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