1 of 3 | American astronaut Frank Rubio has set the U.S. record for longest stay in space at 371 days. Aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Rubio and two cosmonauts left the International Space Station early Wednesday for their return to Earth. Photo by Bob Hines/NASA/UPI
American astronaut Frank Rubio returned to Earth Wednesday, putting an end to his record-setting 371-day mission in space.
The Soyuz MS-23 touched down about 90 miles southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 7:17 a.m. EDT. Advertisement
“Welcome home, Frank!” NASA wrote on social media, as the landing completed the single longest spaceflight for any NASA astronaut at 371 days.
The previous record of 355 days was set by astronaut Mark Vande Hei in March 2022.
The Soyuz detached from the station’s Prichal docking module at 3:54 a.m. EDT Wednesday as the orbital was soaring 260 miles over southeastern Mongolia with Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin on board.
The crewed Soyuz spacecraft successfully undocked from the space station’s Prichal module at 3:54am ET today, heading for a parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan later this morning at 7:17am. https://t.co/JFga6FbL08 pic.twitter.com/GyertHXPxb— International Space Station (@Space_Station) September 27, 2023
Rubio had arrived at the station on Sept. 21 of last year, by hitching a ride with his Russian counterparts aboard the Soyuz MS-22 amid strained relations between their two nations over the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine that almost saw cosmonauts pulled from the joint orbiting laboratory. Advertisement
Rubio was only meant to be in space for six months for his first mission, but the spacecraft they arrived on sprung a coolant leak in December extending his stay another six months. In February, the Russians launched the un-piloted MS-23 to the station that would take them home.
The American remarked on the difficulty of life in space in his final press briefing held in the days leading to his exit from the orbital that he had called home for more than a year.
“I think the one thing that I’ve tried to do and hopefully have achieved — I certainly haven’t done it perfectly — is to just kind of stay positive and stay steady throughout the mission despite the internal up and downs,” he said.
“You try to just focus on the mission and on the job and remain steady because ultimately, every day you have to show up and do the work. And up here in this very unforgiving environment, we have to do things right.”
He said professionally, the mission was “incredibly rewarding” and “a huge honor,” but personally, “it was an incredible challenge” and “difficult.”
The mission is also among the longest ever, with cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov setting the record of 438 days between January 1994 and March 1995. Advertisement
