A NASA astronaut and two cosmonauts landed safely on Earth on Wednesday after spending a record stay of more than a year aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Russia’s Roscosmos announced.
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“Today, at 2:17 pm Moscow time (11:17 am GMT), the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft capsule arrived (…) carrying Roscosmos astronauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio. Roscosmos said that the rocket that was on board the International Space Station landed in the area of the city of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.
The Russian Space Agency confirmed, in a press statement, that “Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin spent 370 days, 21 hours and 22 minutes in space, which is the longest flight within the framework of the International Space Station program.”
For his part, Bill Nelson, head of NASA, praised the “historic moment in space exploration.”
Frank Rubio completed his 371-day journey into space, setting a new record for the longest solo spaceflight by an American astronaut. Welcome home, Frank!” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Photography: AFP/NASA/Bill Ingalls
He launched in September 2022 on a Russian rocket, thinking of departing on a classic six-month mission, accompanied by the two Russian cosmonauts.
But the Soyuz spacecraft that was scheduled to return them — and always remained attached to the ISS for the duration of their mission so as to be able to serve as an emergency vehicle if necessary — developed a leak in December, possibly caused by a small meteorite impact. .
As a precaution, Roscosmos returned this ship and sent another empty. Thus Frank Rubio and his two Russian colleagues carried out the mission of the crew that was initially scheduled to arrive on this second ship and replace them.
The previous record for an American was set by astronaut Mark Vande Heij in 2022, with 355 consecutive days. The absolute record for the longest stay in space is held by Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, at 437 days.
