Russia will send a rescue ship to the International Space Station, next month to pick up three members of the crew who are already in orbit following their previous capsule was struck by a meteoroid.

Last month, a large leak on the docked Soyuz MS-22 caused radiator fluid to spill into space and forced two cosmonauts to cancel a scheduled spacewalk.

The incident sparked questions as to whether everybody aboard the orbiting lab could escape to Earth in a crisis, despite Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, saying there was no immediate risk to the personnel of the space station.

The MS-22 was declared unsafe due to the leak's increased cabin temperatures, having left only one functioning 'escape pod' stationed on the ISS—a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. The SpaceX spacecraft has only four seats, although there are seven people on the space station.

Following consideration, Roscosmos said that it has chosen to move up the Soyuz MS-23's scheduled March launch date to February 20 in order to utilise it to return to Earth the Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin as well as the American astronaut Francisco Rubio.

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Before that time, Roscosmos said, the prospect of deploying the malfunctioning Soyuz MS-22 to evacuate the crew would be taken into consideration if a 'very critical' scenario developed on the ISS.

Originally intended to carry three crew members, MS-23 will depart as a rescue vessel without any team members. When Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio will return to the planet in the backup Soyuz was not disclosed by Yuri Borisov, the head of Roscosmos.

Once the substitute spacecraft is delivered, the damaged MS-22 will return without a crew, Roscosmos noted.

Human spacecraft is seriously endangered by micrometeoroids, found naturally in rocks or metal particles that may be as small as a sand grain. They fly around the planet at a speed of roughly 17,000 mph (27,400 km/h), which is far quicker than a bullet.

According to Roscosmos, the micrometeoroid that struck the docked Soyuz had a very small diameter and only left a 1mm-sized hole in the spacecraft. Images from NASA TV showed snowflake-like white particles shooting out of the back, and it caused severe damage. 

Additionally, human-made 'space debris' might harm equipment. In a 2021 missile test that resulted in clouds of whirling shrapnel, Russia destroyed one of its own satellites.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, space has maintained a rare domain of collaboration between Moscow and Washington.

Nearly ten years after the conclusion of the cold war and at a period of enhanced US-Russian cooperation, the ISS was deployed in stages starting in 1998. In 2031, the decaying space station will be 'de-orbited,' with a programmed landing into an isolated region of the Pacific.

In the meantime, fresh space competition is intensifying between the US and China. Beijing's space programme launched its first crewed space station in Earth orbit in 2021. The 'heavenly palace'-named 70-ton Tiangong is anticipated to be in use for at least ten years