Astronaut and Cosmonauts Fly Soyuz Crew Ship to New Docking Port on Space Station

The Soyuz MS-23 crew ship docking to the Prichal module on the Earth-facing side of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV

The Soyuz MS-23, with Expedition 69 crew members Frank Rubio of NASA, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin aboard, has successfully docked to the Prichal module on the Earth-facing side of the International Space Station on April 6, 2023, at 5:22 a.m. EDT.

The Soyuz MS-23 crew ship slowly backs away from the station carrying three Expedition 69 crewmates to a new docking port. Credit: NASA TV

Around 30 minutes earlier, the Soyuz MS-23 undocked from the Poisk module on the space-facing side of the complex with the three crew members aboard. Prokopyev, the Soyuz commander, manually flew the spacecraft away from Poisk for its redocking to Prichal. He was strapped into the descent module of the Soyuz with Petelin seated to his left and Rubio to his right. They successfully flew around the ISS and made their way to redock to the Prichal module on the Earth-facing side of the outpost.

The Roscosmos Soyuz MS-23 undocked from the Poisk module on the International Space Station and relocated for a docking to the Prichal module on April 6. Aboard the Soyuz for the brief flight were NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Dimitri Petelin and Soyuz commander Sergey Prokopyev. The maneuver opened the Poisk docking port for the arrival of the Progress 84 resupply vehicle that will launch later this spring. MS-23 launched uncrewed on February 24 to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 which undocked and returned to Earth on March 28. Credit: NASA

This was the 26th spacecraft relocation in space station history. The move makes room for the arrival of the uncrewed Roscosmos Progress 84 cargo spacecraft later this year and frees the Poisk airlock for the upcoming Roscosmos spacewalks in April and May.