Russia’s unmanned Soyuz MS-22 capsule returned to Earth on Tuesday from the International Space Station (ISS), landing in Kazakhstan three months after leaking a coolant.
The ship landed at 5:46pm local time (1146 GMT) in the vast Central Asian country, a live stream by Roscosmos showed.
The Russian space agency said the capsule carried “about 218 kilograms of cargo”, including the results of scientific experiments.
It landed near the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan.
The capsule carried Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergei Prokopyev and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio arrived at the ISS last September and is expected to bring them home.
But it started leaking coolant in mid-December – just before the Russian cosmonauts began their spacewalks – after being hit by something that US and Russian space officials said. believe is a small space rock.
In February, Russia sent an MS-23 to the ISS to pick up the stranded crew. It is expected to return them to Earth next September.
The damage caused by the small meteorite to MS-22’s cooling system is suspected to have raised concerns that problems could occur during the return process, when the capsule experiences extreme temperatures.
Space has remained a rare site of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the start of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions on Moscow.
