If NASA had asked astronaut Frank Rubio long ago if he would like to spend an entire year on the International Space Station, he likely would have said no. But that’s what happened, when problems with the crew’s Soyuz ferry forced them to extend their six-month stay to 12 months.
“If they asked me first before training, because you train for a year or two for your mission, I probably would have refused,” Rubio told reporters on Tuesday, eight days before he and the two Soyuz crew members plan to return to the US. Earth. “It will hurt, but I will refuse it.
Astronaut Frank Rubio, floating in Japan’s Kibo laboratory module on the International Space Station, answers reporters’ questions about his yearlong extended flight. / Credit: NASA TV
“And that’s just because of family, things that happened over the last year,” he said of his wife and four children. “Had I known that I would have to miss such an important event, I would have just said thank you, but no thank you.”
But once training began for a flight that was supposed to take six months, he was committed, and he took the mission extension in stride “because at the end of the day that’s our job.”
“We have to complete this mission,” he said. “Having the International Space Station [permanently occupied] for 23 years required many individual and family sacrifices. But sometimes that’s what you have to do.”
This is nothing new for Rubio, a West Point graduate, UH-60 Blackhawk combat helicopter pilot, flight surgeon and family physician. Among the family milestones he missed during his great mission: a daughter completing her freshman year at the U.S. Naval Academy and a son starting his freshman year at West Point.
Rubio and two Soyuz crew members – Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin – launched to the space station last September 21 aboard the Soyuz MS-22/68S ferry, beginning a planned stay of half a year, the standard duration for long periods. station crew.
Rubio, floating in the space station’s multi-window dome compartment, plans to return to Earth next Wednesday with two Russian cosmonauts, capping his 371-day stay in space, the longest single flight by an American astronaut. / Credit: NASA
But their docked, inactive Soyuz was hit by a micrometeoroid last December, damaging critical cooling passages. After several weeks of analysis, Russian engineers decided the safest course of action was to launch a replacement spacecraft, forcing Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio to extend their stay another six months.
“When it finally became apparent that I would have to stay for a full year [it] difficult, even if the decision takes several months,” Rubio said. “And basically, we know the situation, we are dealing with it, we are thinking about options. So even though it’s difficult, to be honest… my family and I have been able to accept it.”
Rubio, Prokopyev and Petelin plan to dock the Soyuz MS-23/69S replacement spacecraft and detach from the space station next Wednesday. If all goes well, they will land on the steppes of Kazakhstan at around 7:14 a.m. EDT (5:14 p.m. local time) to complete the 371-day mission, the third-longest flight in space history and the longest ever. US astronaut.
After an initial medical check and a phone call to family, Rubio will board a NASA jet for the flight back to Houston while Prokopyev and Petelin head to Star City near Moscow.
Rubio (top left) plans to return to Earth next Wednesday with Soyuz crewmate Dmitri Petelin (top right) and commander Sergei Prokopyev (bottom center) to complete a 371-day stay in space. This will be the third longest flight in space history and a new record for a US astronaut. / Credit: NASA
When asked what he was most looking forward to after returning to Earth, Rubio said that “hugging my wife and kids is the most important thing. And I’ll probably focus on that for the first few days.”
“We are quite blessed to have a quiet backyard,” he adds. “And I think just getting out in the yard and enjoying the trees and the silence. Up here, we constantly hear the hum of engines. … So I’m looking forward to being outside and enjoying the peace and quiet. .”
As for re-adapting to gravity after a year of weightlessness, Rubio said it will likely take several months to regain his feet on land and the normal balance afforded by his vestibular system. But since this was his first space flight, and it had been a year, he wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
“When you come back to Earth… that constant gravitational force really has a strong impact on a lot of people, and you’re probably going to spend a lot of time sick,” he said. “So your vestibular system is probably the most impacted.
“And after that, it takes a few months to get your strength back. Our coaches do a great job of keeping us in shape here. But the reality is that we don’t stand, we don’t walk, we don’t carry our own weight. So, it just takes time for your bones and muscles to get used to doing that consistently when you’re back on Earth. It took me between two to six months before I could really say that I felt normal.”
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2023-09-19 22:21:06
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