Derek Richardson
September twenty seventh, 2023
Soyuz MS-23 parachutes again to Earth with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin. Credit score: NASA
Two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut returned to Earth after a 371-day keep in area — the third longest mission in human spaceflight historical past.
Russia’s Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and NASA’s Frank Rubio landed in their Soyuz MS-23 capsule at 7:17 a.m. EDT (11:17 UTC) Sept. 27 on the Steppe of Kazakhstan after spending greater than a 12 months dwelling aboard the Worldwide Area Station. The trio launched to the area station Sept. 21, 2022. Nevertheless, their mission was prolonged by six months after the spacecraft they launched with, Soyuz MS-22, had to get replaced following a coolant leak ensuing from a possible micrometeoroid affect.
Frank Rubio, left, Sergey Prokopyev, heart, and Dmitry Petelin sit in couches after being extracted from their Soyuz MS-23 capsule following their landing in Kazakhstan. Credit score: NASA
Rubio broke the earlier period report for a NASA astronaut set by Mark Vande Hei by 16 days and is the primary American to spend greater than a 12 months in orbit for a single mission. Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio now additionally maintain the report for the longest serving crew aboard the ISS.
Solely two different folks have had longer spaceflights — each aboard the Mir area station: Sergei Avdeyev for 379.6 days in 1998/1999 and Valeri Polyakov for 437.7 days in 1994/1995.
The unique deliberate crew for Soyuz MS-23 was bumped to Soyuz MS-24, which launched to the ISS Sept. 15 with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA’s Loral O’Hara.
The 2 cosmonauts are anticipated to stay in orbit till subsequent September, returning in Soyuz MS-25. O’Hara will return with a short-duration crew in Soyuz MS-24 in March 2024.
Additionally aboard the ISS are the 4 members of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission: NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Area 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.
Collectively, the seven folks nonetheless aboard the ISS make up Expedition 70, commanded by Mogensen, which formally started when Soyuz MS-23 undocked from the station’s Prichal module at round 3:54 a.m. EDT (07:54 UTC).
Video courtesy of NASA
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 Evaluation. He additionally has a web site about human spaceflight referred to as Orbital Velocity. You could find him on twitter @TheSpaceWriter.
