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Record-breaking NASA astronaut Frank Rubio has finally returned to Earth, feeling Earth’s gravity for the first time in over a year.
Rubio and two Russian colleagues, Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitri Peterin, boarded Russia’s Soyuz MS-23 capsule at 5:17 p.m. local time (7:17 a.m. ET) Wednesday. Arrived at Kazakhstan landing by parachute.
The crew’s arrival marks the end of a long and unexpected journey for Rubio, who was scheduled to spend just six months aboard the International Space Station. Instead, he spent a total of 371 days in space after a coolant leak was discovered during his original boarding while docked at the orbiting outpost.
Bill Ingalls/NASA
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio (left) and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev (center) and Dmitri Peterin after landing in a remote area near the town of Zhekazgan in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. , sitting in a chair outside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft.
Rubio’s stay set a record for the longest time spent in microgravity by a U.S. astronaut. He also became the first American to spend an entire calendar year in orbit.
His record-breaking mission also marked other notable firsts for Rubio. This is his first space trip since he was selected to join the NASA astronaut corps in 2017, and at the start of the mission, Rubio became the first astronaut from El Salvador. low earth orbit.
In a recent interview with CNN, Rubio said if he had known his stay on the space station would be twice as long as originally planned, he “probably would have turned down” the mission before training began.
“That’s entirely because of family events that have happened over the past year,” he said. “And if I had known that I would have to miss these very important events, I would have just said, ‘Thank you, but no thanks.'”
Rubio, a father of four, will now begin his journey home from the Soyuz spacecraft’s landing site near the Kazakh town of Zhekazgan. He will first fly to Karaganda, about 330 miles (530 kilometers) northeast of Zhezkazgan, and then board a flight to Houston.
02:53 – Source: CNN
NASA astronaut sets record for longest stay in space
All told, Rubio and his crew traveled 157.4 million miles (253.3 million kilometers) and orbited the Earth 5,963 times. NASA.
Rubio broke the record for longest space stay by an American astronaut (355 days), set in 2022 by NASA’s Mark Vande Hei.
The late Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov holds the world record for the longest stay in space, spending 437 consecutive days in orbit aboard Russia’s Mir Space Station from January 1994 to March 1995.
US and Russian space cooperation
Rubio traveled to the space station on a Russian spacecraft as part of his next mission. ride share contract The agreement between NASA and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos was hastily concluded in the summer of 2022, during the height of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The seat exchange agreement ensures that both the United States and Russia, the outpost’s primary operators, have access to the space station in the event that either country experiences a problem with the spacecraft that causes astronauts to remain on the ground. This was an effort to continue the long-standing policy of
Rubio, Prokopyev, and Peterin launched on a Soyuz MS-22 on September 21, 2022, and arrived safely at the ISS three hours later, leaving the Soyuz capsule docked outside the space station and leaving the orbiting laboratory behind. I went out to work.
In an interview with reporters last week, Rubio thanked his family, saying, “Their resilience and strength has allowed us to get through this entire mission.”
Less than three months into the crew’s mission, the Soyuz MS-22 began spewing coolant. An investigation by Roscosmos, which was later reviewed by NASA, determined that the spacecraft likely struck a small object in orbit. The culprit turns out to be a micrometeorite or orbital debris, posing a growing threat on Earth. increasingly crowded Environment of low earth orbit.
The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was deemed unfit to return astronauts, and Roscosmos immediately worked to launch a replacement, the Soyuz MS-23, in February.
Konstantin Borisov/Roscosmos/Reuters
The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft (left) that returned Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Peterin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio to Earth.
But Rubio and his colleagues are not yet able to return home, and as Roscosmos prepares more Soyuz capsules to replace them, authorities have decided to extend their stay instead. Decided.
The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft was finally completed this month. Carried NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos astronauts. Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chubut left for the space station on September 15, paving the way for Rubio’s return on Wednesday.
Rubio, a medical doctor and military helicopter pilot with more than 600 hours of combat experience, is unable to return to his pre-space life immediately upon his return due to the effects that prolonged stay in microgravity has on his body. I acknowledged that it was highly possible.
“We’re not walking and we’re not supporting our own weight[while in space]so it will be two to six months before we can basically say we’re feeling normal.” He said.
But there are many earthly treasures he looks forward to experiencing. It’s a machine that keeps us alive,” he said in an interview from space. “So I’m looking forward to getting out and enjoying the peace and quiet.”