The space capsule suffered in December 2022 a large coolant leak, which was discovered immediately afterwards. For a long time it was unclear whether the capsule could still transport astronauts. Now it is certain: The space capsule will return to earth alone, i.e. without a crew.
Livestream broadcast of the return
The whole thing can be followed live in the stream. The space capsule is supposed to 11:57 a.m Launch at noon (9:57 GMT) and lift off from the International Space Station with no astronauts on board. Transmission starts from 11:30 a.m. If everything goes well, the defective capsule will end up overturned 1:45 p.m (11:45 GMT) in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
A possible cause of the leak is a collision with a micrometeorite. The Soyuz capsule arrived at the ISS in September 2022 and brought the Russian astronauts Sergey Propopvev, Dmitri Petelin and the NASA astronauts Frank Rubio to the ISS.