Due to the -diameter hole punctured in the radiator of
Soyuz MS-22 due to micro-meteoroid impact, there were doubts over the safety of Soyuz MS-22. So it was returned uncrewed like
Soyuz 32, and MS-23 was launched uncrewed like
Soyuz 34 as a replacement. As it was launched uncrewed, it carried ~ dry cargo and equipment in its pressurized section, like a
Progress MS spacecraft. Until the replacement MS-23 docked with the ISS,
SpaceX Crew-5 was considered among the options to return the MS-22 crew in case of emergency. This is due to the fact that
SpaceX originally designed the
Crew Dragon to host a crew of seven at a time. Due to these reasons, the International Space Station mission management team decided to move NASA astronaut
Francisco Rubio's Soyuz seat liner from the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft to Dragon
Endurance to provide lifeboat capabilities in the event Rubio would need to return to Earth because of an emergency evacuation from the space station. The seat liner was moved on 17 January 2023, with installation and configuration continuing through most of the day, 18 January 2023. This seat liner swapping is not new between two Soyuz, but this was the first time swapping from Soyuz to Crew Dragon. As Soyuz MS-22 was unable to perform crew return, it reentered uncrewed like
Soyuz 32, and MS-23 was launched empty like
Soyuz 34 to return the crew. The original crewed mission was delayed and reassigned to
Soyuz MS-24. As the MS-23 arrived at the space station on 26 February, Rubio's seat liner was transferred to the new Soyuz on 6 March, and the seat liners for
Sergey Prokopyev and
Dmitry Petelin were moved from MS-22 to MS-23 on 2 March ahead of their return in the Soyuz. == Crew ==