NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Returns from Record-Breaking Space Mission After 371 Days: The first American astronaut to have continually spent more than a year in space is Dr. Frank Rubio. He, along with Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, two other Russian cosmonauts, returned to Earth on Wednesday. Rubio spent 371 consecutive days on the International Space Station (ISS), nearly a year longer than astronauts Mark Vande Hei (355 days) and Scott Kelly (340 days).
The journey exceeded expectations and smashed records in the process. The three were stranded onboard the Space Station for 191 more days than expected when their initial return capsule was damaged by space debris upon arriving on the ISS in March.
NASA Astronaut was stuck in space, but why?
The group was supposed to land on Earth on March 28 in a Soyuz capsule, but they were forced to remain when their spacecraft was hit by a piece of space junk or a meteoroid in December 2022, which caused an uncontrollable radiator leak. In February, the three departed into space in the unmanned backup spacecraft after the unrepairable one was brought back.
Due to additional scheduling issues, Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin had to remain on the ISS until today. Rubio’s longer stay, however, presents an unexpected opportunity to learn more about extended spaceflight. They could scarcely move once they arrived, so they were removed from their Soyuz spaceship and transported away.
NASA reports that throughout his mission, Rubio completed around 5,936 orbits of the Earth, which is roughly 157 million miles (253 million km) or nearly 328 trips to the moon and back. He also shared the ISS with 28 different crew members and spent about 21 hours on three spacewalks. Rubio told reporters after touching down on Earth, “It’s good to be home.”
Who is Frank Rubio, The NASA Astronaut Returned to Earth from Space After 371 Days?
Rubio is the first person of El Salvadoran heritage to orbit the planet. He joined NASA in 2017. Rubio worked as an Army special forces officer, flight doctor, and Blackhawk helicopter pilot before joining the space programme. He flew combat missions in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Rubio’s first space mission was this one.
Rubio told reporters before touching down on Earth that if he had known the mission’s timetable in advance, he would have refused it. He said that the emotional toll of his protracted stay on the ISS was worse than he had anticipated. And that he had missed important family gatherings. He yet asserted that he was grateful for the honour. He was also looking forward to regaining the power and coordination he had lost as a result of prolonged microgravity.
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