The M-23 Soyuz serves as a replacement for the M-22 due to it having a leak in its coolant system. This has rendered the spacecraft unsafe for returning back to Earth. Ergo, a relief Sotuz will be bringing the astronauts back home.

M-23 on the ISS

The replacement spacecraft docked at the Internation Space Station (ISS) on Saturday at 7:58 p.m. EST, just 260 miles above northern Mongolia. The Soyuz M-23 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome last Thursday. 

The launch date was held back due to issues found on the Progress-82 spacecraft. Fortunately, the delay was only eight days past the original launch date, which was February 19th. Originally, the Soyuz vehicle was supposed to launch as late as March.

They investigated if it was a common issue for all Russian spacecraft, but Russian space agency Roscosmos determined that it may have been unrelated micrometeoroid strikes, according to Space, resulting in an earlier-than-expected launch.

The M-23 Soyuz flight was not intended to be an uncrewed flight. The original plan involved launching in spring with other astronauts on board. The flight was accelerated and uncrewed to make space for the crew on the ISS, Petelin, Prokopyev, and Rubio.

Although reports say that the crew to be rescued with the M-23 Soyuz spacecraft is expended to extend their mission in space for a year, which will be twice more than what was initially assigned. It will allow for another Soyuz with three people to come as a relief crew.

Should an emergency require the astronauts to evacuate the ISS, two cosmonauts would board the MS-22 Soyuz, since a lesser crowd means it won't heat up the capsule as much. Rubio would end up on the SpaceX Crew-5 Dragon spacecraft.

There are already plans laid out for the next Soyuz to be launched. The MS-24 flight date might be placed around September. 

Read Also: Russian Spacecraft Soyuz Docks To ISS Due To Leaky 0.8 Millimetre Hole

Pattern of Leaks

A leak was found on the Soyuz spacecraft that was supposed to bring the cosmonauts home on December 14th, 2022. Due to a micrometeoroid strike, the spacecraft lost all its coolant, which is required for its descent back to Earth.

As mentioned by The Guardian, micrometeoroids small pieces of rock or metal that can travel faster than bullets, making them extremely dangerous even though they are sometimes the size of a grain of sand.

Rob Navias, a NASA commentator said that there were visible streams of flakes coming from the place of impact at the ft of the Soyuz. It was located near the instrumentation and propulsion module which showed signs of the leak, reports say. 

Upon discovery of the M-22 leak, both flight engineer Dimitri Petelin and crew commander Sergey Prokopyev canceled the spacewalk that was intended for moving a radiator from one module to another.

With the Progress-82's reported leaks as well, the Russian space agency had concerns that this might something that affects all the spacecraft. Luckily, that was not the case and the Soyuz M-23 was able to launch earlier than expected.

Related: Launch of Russia's Uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 Will Be Delayed to March