NASA’s Frank Rubio breaks US spaceflight period document

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio in entrance of the cupola window aboard the ISS. Credit score: NASA

In the course of the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2023, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio broke the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American citizen.

Rubio, 47, surpassed the document beforehand held by NASA’s Mark Vande Hei, who returned to Earth in March of 2022 after a 355.2-day keep aboard the Worldwide House Station.

Rubio, together with two of his Russian colleagues, cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, now even have the document of the longest serving crew aboard the ISS. They’re anticipated to depart the outpost in Soyuz MS-23 as early as Sept. 27, which might convey their whole keep to simply over 371 days — greater than a full yr.

Solely two different folks, each cosmonauts serving aboard the Russian Mir area station, had longer stays in orbit: Sergei Avdeyev for 379.6 days in 1998/1999 and Valeri Polyakov for 437.7 days in 1994/1995.

Rubio, Prokopyev and Petlin launched to the area station on Sept. 21, 2022, for a deliberate six-month keep. Nonetheless, their Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft suffered an exterior cooling loop leak in December, doubtless brought on by a micrometeoroid influence. This prompted Roscosmos to ship up an uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 to behave as a alternative for the compromised spacecraft.

And not using a working exterior coolant loop, the inside of the Soyuz spacecraft would doubtless have gotten uncomfortably sizzling for the trio whereas of their launch and entry fits. As such, Soyuz MS-22 returned to Earth uncrewed.

The unique crew for Soyuz MS-23 was bumped to Soyuz MS-24, which is now scheduled to launch Sept. 15 with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA’s Loral O’Hara. These three are slated to reside aboard the ISS for about six months (doubtless longer for the 2 cosmonauts), changing Rubio, Prokopyev and Petlin.

Additionally aboard the ISS are the 4 members of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission: NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European House Company astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov. They arrived on the outpost in late August, additionally for a six-month keep.

As soon as Soyuz MS-23 departs with the yearlong crew, the remaining seven astronauts and cosmonauts will type Expedition 70.

The three crewmembers of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft. Clockwise from prime left are, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev. Credit score: NASA

Tagged: Expedition 69 Frank Rubio Worldwide House Station Lead Tales NASA Soyuz MS-22 Soyuz MS-23

Derek Richardson

Derek Richardson has a level in mass media, with an emphasis in up to date journalism, from Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas. Whereas at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the scholar run newspaper, the Washburn Overview. He additionally has an internet site about human spaceflight referred to as Orbital Velocity. Yow will discover him on twitter @TheSpaceWriter.