Russia reveals the date for the return of the "stuck astronauts" in space

 The Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) revealed, on Tuesday, the date for the return of the three astronauts stranded on the International Space Station due to a pressure leak in the capsule that was to return them to Earth last year. The agency said the three astronauts will be able to return aboard a replacement Soyuz MS-23 capsule in September.

"It was initially scheduled for Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petlin and Francesco Rubio to land aboard Soyuz MS-22 on March 28, 2023. It is now scheduled to be achieved by Soyuz MS-23V," Russia's TASS news agency quoted Roscosmos as saying. September 2023". Roscosmos and the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) believe that the leak occurred because a small cosmic rock hit the capsule very quickly.

Last December, Roscosmos opened an investigation into the exposure of the outer radiator of the Soyuz capsule to a small hole, while two astronauts were preparing for a routine flight into space. This is not the first leak on Soyuz. In 2018, the capsule had a leak that was repaired after causing a small pressure loss that did not cause any damage.