NASA’s Rubio breaks longest US space mission record

When astronaut Frank Rubio blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS) in September 2022, he was scheduled to return to Earth within six months. time. But Rubio’s trip to his home planet was disrupted Leaving him stranded in low Earth orbit. As a result of this mishap, Rubio is scheduled to spend more than a year in space, breaking the record for the longest mission by an American astronaut.

On Monday, a NASA astronaut will overcome… previous record of the 355 days set by Mark Vandy is in 2022. Rubio will return to Earth no later than September 27, where he will spend 371 days in Earth’s orbit and become the first American astronaut, and one of only six people, to spend a year in space.

Although it wasn’t intentional, Rubio is making the most of his extended time in space. “I think so [duration] “It’s really important in the sense that it teaches us that the human body can endure,” Rubio said during a recent interview on ABC. Good morning America. “As we prepare to return to the Moon and then from there, forward to hopefully Mars and then into the solar system—I think it’s really important to learn how the human body learns how to advertiseapt, and how can we improve this process so that we can improve our performance as we explore more and more beyond Earth.

Rubio launched to the International Space Station on September 21, 2022. He has been the first to ride on a Soyuz spacecraft since then. April 2021as a result of a Seat exchange agreement between NASA and Roscosmos Which stipulated that an American astronaut would ride on board the Russian capsule, in exchange for a Russian astronaut boarding the SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle for the first time.

And in December 2022, the Soyuz spacecraft that carried Rubio, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petlin, began liftoff. Coolant leak into low Earth orbit While attached to the International Space Station. The exact cause of the leak has not been officially announced, but the spacecraft was deemed unfit to return the three to Earth.

Prokopiev, Petlin, Rubio’s stay at the station has been extended for another six months, and the three-person crew is scheduled to return aboard Soyuz MS-23 later this month. Like Rubio, the previous record holder, Vandy Hay, was also unaware of the amount of time he would spend on the International Space Station before launching into Earth orbit. Alternatively, Vande Hay’s stay on the space station has also been extended to accommodate a two-person Russian camera crew shooting a movie on the International Space Station.

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