Astronaut Frank Rubio sets the American record for the longest spaceflight

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Astronaut Frank Rubio has now been in low Earth orbit for more than 355 days, breaking the record for the longest space mission by an American astronaut.

Rubio – who has been on the International Space Station since September 2022 – Excellence The previous record was held by a retired NASA astronaut Mark Vande HeyAt 1:40 p.m. EDT on Monday, according to a space agency spokesperson.

What’s more, Rubio is on track to hit another major milestone in just a few weeks. The Russian Soyuz capsule is not expected to return him and his crewmates – astronauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin – to Earth before September 27.

This means that Rubio will have spent at least 371 days in orbit once he completes his mission. He’s about to become the first American to spend more than a calendar year in microgravity.

However, Rubio’s mission was not originally designed to break records.

When Rubio departed for the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule on September 21, 2022, he and his colleagues thought they were carrying out a six-month mission. But the spacecraft that carried Rubio and his two Russian colleagues A coolant leak has occurred in December. Later, officials at the Russian space agency Roscosmos deemed the spacecraft unsafe to transport the crew home.

Instead, the Soyuz MS-22 capsule returned to Earth without a crew on March 28. Roscosmos launched an alternative spacecraft, MS-23, which… docked With the space station on February 25. Rubio’s return date has been pushed back to September as Russia prepares the next Soyuz spacecraft, which will launch with a new crew of two astronauts and a NASA astronaut as early as Friday.

To commemorate Rubio’s accomplishment, he recorded a conversation with Vande Hei on September 5. NASA is expected to broadcast the footage on Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET on its screen. Media channel.

“Rubio’s spaceflight embodies the essence of exploration,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Monday. statement Posted on social media.

“While he is breaking records as NASA’s longest-serving American astronaut in space, he is also paving the way for future generations of astronauts,” the statement read. “Your dedication is truly out of this world, Frank!”

If all goes as planned, and Rubio leaves on September 27, his 371-day stay will not set a world record for the longest space mission. This title is held by the late Russian astronaut Valery Polyakov, who recorded 437 continuous days in orbit aboard the Russian Mir space station between January 1994 and March 1995.

Vandi He had set a new American record for the largest number of consecutive days in space in 2022 after NASA and Roscosmos decided to extend his stay because Russia sent a two-person crew to the space station to film a movie. Vande Hei’s return was delayed to allow for additional traffic to the orbiting laboratory, though He said At the time he knew that his mission might be extended before he arrived.

Before Vande Hei, American astronaut Scott Kelly held the title of the longest spaceflight by an American with his 340-day mission. This tour of duty was a planned extended mission, designed by NASA Study long-term effects Spaceflight on the human body.

A Russian cosmonaut also holds the current record for the most cumulative days in space. Gennady Padalka happened This title, beating another astronaut in 2015, who achieved a total of 879 days over five separate spaceflights.

The American record for the most accumulated days in space is held by Peggy Whitson with a total of 675 days in orbit. Whitson, who retired و From NASA’s astronaut team in 2018, she was added to the record more recently in 2023. She now works as a private astronaut for Axiom Space, which has so far hosted Two commercial flights to the space station that allowed paying customers to experience a trip to the orbiting laboratory alongside a veteran professional astronaut.

Rubio traveled to the space station aboard a Russian spacecraft as part of Crew exchange agreement Between NASA and Roscosmos, which was split in the summer of 2022.

NASA officials assigned Rubio to board the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, while Roscosmos put astronaut Anna Kikina on board a spacecraft. SpaceX Crew Dragon mission Which took off in October 2022 and He returned to the house March 11.

Despite geopolitical tensions between the United States and Russia as the war in Ukraine escalates, NASA has repeatedly said that its partnership with Roscosmos is vital to continuing space station operations and the valuable scientific research conducted aboard.

While the ride-sharing agreement was announced, NASA said in a statement that signing such a deal with Russia is critical to ensuring “continued safe operations” of the space station. If Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft or SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule encounters problems and is taken out of service, the seat swap agreement will ensure American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts will still be able to access the space station.

Roscosmos did not need to rely on a SpaceX capsule to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 crew ship, because the MS-23 spacecraft was prepared for flight and a coolant leak on the MS-22 spacecraft did not necessarily indicate potential problems. Officials pointed to other Soyuz vehicles.

Joel Montalbano, NASA’s International Space Station program manager, said during a news conference in July that Roscosmos investigated the problem and found that it was likely an “external force” that caused the leak, suggesting that a piece of orbital debris may have… It collided with the spacecraft.

“The NASA team also looked independently of the Russian team and we also couldn’t find anything — based on the information our Russian colleagues gave us — of anything other than some kind of external force or debris or anything else like that.” Montalbano said.

During his stay in space, Rubio saw several crews of astronauts traveling via SpaceX vehicles. Aside from the Axiom-2 crew that visited in May, SpaceX Crew-6 astronauts have done so It comes and goes Since Rubio’s arrival. And Crew-7 – which includes astronauts from NASA, Roscosmos, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency – receipt At the station in August.