The three astronauts who extended their stay on the International Space Station are preparing to return home

After extending their stay on the International Space Station for more than six months, due to a malfunction in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft that was scheduled to return them to Earth again last March, astronauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin, from Roscosmos, and Frank Rubio are preparing, From NASA, for their return to Earth next week.

With him Record survival in spaceThese days, the three astronauts are focusing their attention on their return to Earth aboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-23 on the 27th.

When they arrived at the International Space Station on September 22, three hours after liftoff from the Baikur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, they were convinced that their mission in space would last only six months. But the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft they arrived in recorded a coolant leak three months later and Roscosmos officials considered the spacecraft not safe to bring astronauts home.

Roscosmos management and NASA agreed that the damaged capsule would return to Earth without a crew on March 28, while the unmanned MS-23 ship was launched as a cargo ship carrying half a ton of medical supplies and research that would rescue the three astronauts. Later this month.

in this days, Commander Sergei Prokopyev and flight engineers Dmitry Petlin and Frank Rubio prepare boarding suits for Soyuz MS-23. Which will land with the help of parachutes on the 27th.