A NASA astronaut safely returned to Earth Wednesday after a 371-day stay in space, marking a record spaceflight for an American astronaut.
NASA’s Frank Rubio and his crew, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitri Peterin, launch parachute support southeast of the remote Kazakh town of Zhezkasgan at 7:17 a.m. ET. The aircraft landed safely.
After a post-landing medical examination, the crew will return to Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Rubio will then board a NASA plane and return to Houston, where he lives with his family.
“For me, to be honest, obviously hugging my wife and kids is going to be the most important thing, and that’s probably what I’m going to focus on for the first few days,” Rubio said at a news conference from space last week. Told.
Rubio expected to live only six months when he set out on Russia’s Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan last September.
His return was moved to December after controllers discovered a coolant leak in the Soyuz spacecraft. The leak may have caused dangerously high temperatures Rubio’s return was delayed because another spacecraft had to be sent to the space station for the crew to return to Earth. According to NASA, Rubio’s single spaceflight surpassed Mark Vande Hei’s record of 355 days for a U.S. astronaut.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Rubio’s unscheduled extended stay was more than just another milestone.
“This is a significant contribution to our understanding of long-term space missions,” Nelson said in a statement. “Our astronauts are making extraordinary sacrifices, away from home and loved ones, in order to make further discoveries.”
Nelson said Rubio made “valuable scientific contributions” during his long stay. The mission provided researchers with an opportunity to observe the effects of long-duration spaceflight on humans, as the agency plans to return to the moon with a spacecraft. artemis mission And to explore Mars, he added.
Mr. Rubio spent many hours researching a variety of subjects, from plants to research in the physical sciences. These include research into how bacteria adapt to spaceflight and how exercise affects humans during long-duration missions.
Rubio completed approximately 5,936 orbits aboard the space station during his mission. He traveled more than 157 million miles, roughly the equivalent of 328 round trips to the moon.