MOSCOW. Feb 22 (Interfax) - The unmanned Soyuz MS-23 spaceship to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on February 24 will be able to dock with the station in the automatic mode only, Roscosmos Executive Director for Manned Space Programs Sergei Krikalev said.
"There will be no manual docking, however, the ship will be capable of repeat docking, that is, it has enough fuel for several attempts," Krikalev said in a video released by the Roscosmos press service on Wednesday.
The possibility of a second approach to the ISS will minimize the risks: if the automatic docking fails, the ship may move to the node of a different module, he said.
The Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle carrying the unmanned Soyuz MS-23 spaceship to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) at 3:24 a.m. Moscow Time on February 24.
The ship will deliver spare equipment for the Russian segment of the station, gear for landing, maintenance, repairs, crew support, prevention of negative effects from zero gravity, and sanitary and hygienic support, as well as protective equipment for cosmonauts, underwear, and food ration containers.
Roscosmos said on February 18 that its specialists did not find any defects in the Soyuz MS-23's radiator.
The Russian-U.S. crew of the damaged Soyuz MS-22 spaceship, namely, Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio, will be able to return to Earth by Soyuz MS-23 this fall.