A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts landed this Wednesday in Kazakhstan after a mission of more than a year on the International Space Station (ISS), as announced by the Russian agency Roscosmos. «Today, at 2:17 p.m. Moscow time (11:17 a.m. GMT), the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft (…) with cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Petelin, and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who spent a year on the ISS , landed in the region of the city of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan," Roscosmos said in a statement. "Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Petelin spent 370 days, 21 hours and 22 minutes in space, the longest flight within the ISS program," the Russian space agency underlined in the document. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin have returned to Earth in Kazakhstan @nasahqfoto Related News standard No NASA finds "dark dust" when opening the 'box' left by Osiris-Rex with samples of the asteroid Bennu EP standard Yes Osiris rex mission Yasmina Martos, NASA scientist: "The samples from the asteroid Bennu will help us clarify if life came from space" Judith de Jorge The head of NASA, Bill Nelson, has stated that The mission represented a "historic moment in space exploration." «Frank Rubio concludes his 371-day journey in space, setting a new record for the longest space flight by an American astronaut. “Welcome home, Frank!” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). Desktop Code Welcome home, Frank! https://t.co/Uf6DStBxZS— NASA Astronauts (@NASA_Astronauts)
September 27, 2023 Image for mobile, amp and app Mobile code Welcome home, Frank! https://t.co/Uf6DStBxZS— NASA Astronauts (@NASA_Astronauts)
September 27, 2023 AMP Code Welcome home, Frank! https://t.co/Uf6DStBxZS— NASA Astronauts (@NASA_Astronauts)
September 27, 2023 APP Code Welcome home, Frank! https://t.co/Uf6DStBxZS— NASA Astronauts (@NASA_Astronauts)
September 27, 2023 Records achieved The last record held by an American was achieved in 2022 with astronaut Mark Vande Hei, with 355 consecutive days. The absolute record for the longest stay in space is held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov, with 437 days. Rubio, who took off in September 2022 aboard a Russian rocket along with two cosmonauts from this country, thought his mission would last six months. But the stay was prolonged due to damage to the return ship, the Soyuz MS-22, which in December 2022 suffered a significant leak when it was docked to the ISS, probably due to the impact of a micrometeorite. Roscosmos then decided to change the ship as a precaution and sent another to the ISS without a crew on board. The space sector is one of the few in which there is cooperation between Russia and the United States, in a very tense context due to the conflict in Ukraine.