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- The crew launched on September 21, 2022, on a six-month mission before a coolant leak in the return vehicle extended their stay aboard the space station.
- Rubio and his Russian companions landed on Wednesday morning in a remote area of Kazakhstan after spending 371 flights in space.
- Before Rubio’s mission, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Heij was the American who spent the most consecutive days in space, returning to Earth in 2022 after 355.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio He wasn’t going to break any spaceflight records when he and two Russian astronauts launched into space more than a year ago on a rocket. International Space Station.
The mission was supposed to last only six months. But that was before a piece of space junk penetrated the explorers’ original capsule late last year, requiring a new Soyuz spacecraft to be ferried to them on the trip back to Earth.
In the end, Rubio will spend 371 days in space before his mission ends. According to NASA. Rubio and his Russian companions — Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin — landed Wednesday morning in a remote area of Kazakhstan in the replacement Soyuz capsule that had arrived aboard the space station just two weeks earlier.
It may not have been Rubio’s intention, but his long and unexpected stay in space helped him make history: The 47-year-old astronaut now holds the American record for longest spaceflight, surpassing the previous endurance record set in 2022 by more than two. Weeks.
“It’s good to be home,” Rubio said after being removed from the capsule. According to the Associated Press.
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An expedition to the space station is intended to last six months
When Rubio and the two astronauts lifted off on September 21, 2022, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, they believed they would return to Earth the following March aboard the same spacecraft.
But this was not to be.
A coolant leak was discovered in Russia’s MS-22 Soyuz spacecraft in December while docked at the space station, meaning the trio will need a new journey home. NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos later determined that a small meteorite had damaged the vehicle’s coolant, causing coolant to be spewed into space for hours.
Engineers were concerned that without cooling, the capsule’s electronics and any passengers could overheat to dangerous levels. Instead, the craft returned home empty while NASA and Roscosmos in February sent a replacement spacecraft for the stranded crew, delaying the arrival of a new team of astronauts to relieve them.
Since launching from Kazakhstan last September, Rubio and his crew have traveled more than 157 million miles and orbited the Earth 5,963 times, according to NASA. He said. After separating from the space station in a Soyuz spacecraft at 3:54 a.m. ET this morning, the trio touched down on schedule at 7:17 a.m. on the steppes of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan. According to the space agency.
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Who held the previous American spaceflight record?
Rubio’s stay in space was 16 days longer than Mark Vande Heij’s time aboard the International Space Station.
Vande Hei returned to Earth in March 2022 after 355 days in space, which at the time was the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by an American.
However, Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov who spent 437 consecutive days in space in the mid-1990s remains the world record. Polyakov’s historic mission took place between 1994 and 1995 aboard the Russian space station Mir. According to Astronomy.com.
Who is Frank Rubio?
Army doctor and helicopter pilot, Rubio joined NASA in 2017.
Before joining the space program, Rubio served in the U.S. Army in combat missions aboard a Black Hawk helicopter during deployments to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2010, Rubio earned his MD degree and remains a board-certified family physician and flight surgeon.
A native of Los Angeles, Rubio resides in Miami, Florida with his family.
Rubio’s year-long expedition to the International Space Station was his first mission into space.
Making the most of his time aboard the Rubio Space Station I worked on many scientific projectsincluded Study how bacteria adapt For spaceflight and how future astronauts can exercise and maintain better physical health. He also performed three spacewalks that exceeded 21 hours.
Investigations may be valuable for future missions, but in September interview With Vande Hei’s involvement with NASA, Rubio said his proudest moment was getting the opportunity to fly with 28 different people aboard the space station.
“Every one of them has been just amazing crewmates, very special people and they hold special places now because I was able to share this experience with them,” Rubio said. “This is a memory I will cherish forever.”
Now that he had landed, Rubio and his Russian companions Prokopyev and Petilin were scheduled to be flown from the landing site to Karaganda, Kazakhstan. From there, the American astronaut was scheduled to board a NASA plane back to Houston, a trip that would not be delayed this time.
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Contributing: The Associated Press
Eric Lagata covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Contact him at [email protected]
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