Record Setting NASA Astronaut Back on Earth After Getting Stranded in Space
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Record-Setting NASA Astronaut Back on Earth After Getting Stranded in Space.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who spent an unexpected 371 days in space setting an American record, made it back to Earth safely landing in a Soyuz spacecraft Wednesday with two Russian cosmonauts.
Rubio flew up with his ISS comrades Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos back on Sept. 21, 2022, and they were slated to return six months ago, but soon after docking with the International Space Station, their Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft suffered damage from what officials determined to be a micrometeorite strike.
It damaged the coolant system so the spacecraft was returned to Earth minus its crew, who had to wait aboard the ISS for both their replacement ride and for a new Soyuz to be prepped for their replacement crew who arrived to the ISS earlier this month.
They climbed aboard the Soyuz MS-23 early Wednesday undocking at 3:54 a.m. and touched down at 7:17 a.m. EDT, which was 5:17 p.m. local time on the grassy steppes of Kazakhstan.
“It’s good to be home,” Rubio said while being attended to by recovery teams, giving smiles and thumbs up signs.
Petelin was the last of the three to be carried out from the spacecraft, and looked like the return trip had taken a toll as the trio were placed in recovery chairs to regain their equilibrium, with Petelin the only one sporting sunglasses.
“It was my first landing. I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “Today I felt it to the fullest — the loads, the gravity.”
They were presented with gifts including wooden Matryoshka nesting dolls with the trio’s likeness, and to Prokopyev a bowling-ball-size watermelon he took hold of with both hands.
“I did request watermelon in advance and I appreciate it,” Prokopyev said after holding it to his nose, although he won’t be able to eat it just yet. He said he also wouldn’t mind some pickles and pork, “maybe in a week.”
Rubio is now the record-holder for the longest single spaceflight by an American. He surpassed he 355 days held by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei on Sept. 11 and tacked on another couple of weeks becoming the first American to spend an entire year in space in on go.
The spaceflight was the third longest in history. The longest was 437 days spent in space in the 1990s by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov during one of his two missions to the space station Mir.
The trio will be flown from the landing site to Karaganda, Kazakhstan after which Rubio will board a NASA plane for his flight back to Houston.
Their departure from the ISS marked the end of Expedition 69 and beginning of Expedition 70 with the remaining seven crew on board from NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA and the European Space Agency.
Rubio, 47, was born in Los Angeles and raised by his
Get it now -- https://shorturl.at/nvCU5 "
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record-Setting NASA Astronaut Back on Earth After Getting Stranded in Space.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who spent an unexpected 371 days in space setting an American record, made it back to Earth safely landing in a Soyuz spacecraft Wednesday with two Russian cosmonauts.
Rubio flew up with his ISS comrades Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos back on Sept. 21, 2022, and they were slated to return six months ago, but soon after docking with the International Space Station, their Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft suffered damage from what officials determined to be a micrometeorite strike.
It damaged the coolant system so the spacecraft was returned to Earth minus its crew, who had to wait aboard the ISS for both their replacement ride and for a new Soyuz to be prepped for their replacement crew who arrived to the ISS earlier this month.
They climbed aboard the Soyuz MS-23 early Wednesday undocking at 3:54 a.m. and touched down at 7:17 a.m. EDT, which was 5:17 p.m. local time on the grassy steppes of Kazakhstan.
“It’s good to be home,” Rubio said while being attended to by recovery teams, giving smiles and thumbs up signs.
Petelin was the last of the three to be carried out from the spacecraft, and looked like the return trip had taken a toll as the trio were placed in recovery chairs to regain their equilibrium, with Petelin the only one sporting sunglasses.
“It was my first landing. I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “Today I felt it to the fullest — the loads, the gravity.”
They were presented with gifts including wooden Matryoshka nesting dolls with the trio’s likeness, and to Prokopyev a bowling-ball-size watermelon he took hold of with both hands.
“I did request watermelon in advance and I appreciate it,” Prokopyev said after holding it to his nose, although he won’t be able to eat it just yet. He said he also wouldn’t mind some pickles and pork, “maybe in a week.”
Rubio is now the record-holder for the longest single spaceflight by an American. He surpassed he 355 days held by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei on Sept. 11 and tacked on another couple of weeks becoming the first American to spend an entire year in space in on go.
The spaceflight was the third longest in history. The longest was 437 days spent in space in the 1990s by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov during one of his two missions to the space station Mir.
The trio will be flown from the landing site to Karaganda, Kazakhstan after which Rubio will board a NASA plane for his flight back to Houston.
Their departure from the ISS marked the end of Expedition 69 and beginning of Expedition 70 with the remaining seven crew on board from NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA and the European Space Agency.
Rubio, 47, was born in Los Angeles and raised by his