With the joint flights agreement signed between the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos and the US Aerospace Agency NASA, the first space flight took place in September 2022. However, the joint flight Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft experienced some technical problems. Therefore, Russia launched the MS-23 spacecraft into orbit.
Misfortunes that befell MS-22 and the MS-23 spacecraft!
The MS-22 spacecraft was prepared for 2 cosmonauts and 1 astronaut. The mission covered a total of 5 spacewalks and 188 days aboard the ISS (International Space Station). The Soyuz spacecraft MS-22, on the other hand, would bring astronauts and cosmonauts home safely after this challenging mission. However, MS-22 was struck by a micrometeorite during its arrival at the ISS and leaked some cooling water.
This situation was not dangerous in cases such as MS-22 staying connected to the ISS. But NASA and Roscosmos didn’t take risks for astronauts and cosmonauts in an emergency. Because it is a mystery whether the MS-22 will perform this evacuation in situations that require urgent evacuation from the ISS. Therefore, it was prepared with the MS-23 emergency code and entered the service.
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The MS-23 spacecraft launch was made on February 24 with the emergency code MS-22 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Then, it was informed that MS-23 would arrive at the ISS within 2 days at the latest. One day after launch, on Saturday, December 25, MS-23 successfully docked with the ISS. For NASA and Roscosmos, this risky and painful process is over.
The mission was actually due to end in March. However, spacewalks were not carried out due to security problems that arose after what happened to MS-22. For this reason, the crew is scheduled to stay in space until the end of September. Roscosmos will bring the MS-22 back home next month.
What are the joint crossover missions between NASA and Roscosmos?
NASA and Roscosmos, which are constantly on the agenda with the rivalry between them, finally came to a common denominator. In July 2022, they signed a cross-duty agreement between them. With this agreement, the two arch-rivals started to perform missions in space by establishing mixed teams. This agreement opened the door for two purposes. Firstly, increasing high costs were prevented. Second, both countries benefited from each other’s space experience.
Russian cosmonauts with mixed teams established with this agreement Anna Kikina joined the crew of the US Crew Dragon spacecraft on the Crew-5 mission. NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio took Kikina’s place in the crew of the Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft.
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