Astronaut Frank Rubio, who had to spend an extra six months on the International Space Station because of problems on his flight home to Russia, set a new endurance record in a single flight over the United States on Monday, breaking a new endurance record. Mark Vande Hai 355 hari Off-planet.
Rubio and astronauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petlin plan to return to Earth on a replacement Soyuz ferry on Sept. 27 to end a marathon 371-day stay in space, the first flight in more than a year by American astronauts.
Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio launched last September 21 and planned to return home in March, but their Soyuz MS-22 ferry suffered a massive coolant leak in December, possibly due to a micrometeor impact.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio (top left), astronaut Dmitry Petlin (top right) and Soyuz MS-22/23 commander Sergei Prokopyev (center) plan to detach from the International Space Station and return to Earth on September 27 to conclude the 271st Extended Expedition . Daily Mission – longest solo flight to date by an American astronaut. / Credit: NASA
After extensive analysis, the Russians concluded that the cabin temperature would likely exceed safety limits upon re-entry. So they opted to launch an uncrewed Soyuz replacement spacecraft in February that successfully performed a robotic rendezvous and docking.
To get the Russian crew’s rotation schedule back on track, Prokopyev, Petilin and Rubio, a married father of four, had to extend their stay on the space station for an additional six months.
“Personally, it’s very difficult, just because I miss my family and I know I’m going to miss out on some big accomplishments, especially for my kids,” Rubio said in a previous interview with The Associated Press.
He added: “Birthdays and anniversaries. My son is going to college this year, and my oldest daughter will be finishing her first year of college.” “We try hard to stay in touch with each other… My wife and kids are in the military, and they handle it very well.
“And how well they handled it made it easier for me to focus on the work and feel satisfied with the work I received.”
Frank Rubio, shown here floating in the multi-window dome cabin of the International Space Station, surpassed fellow astronaut Mark Vande Heij’s single-flight record of 355 days on September 11, and is on track to log more than a full year in space . / Credit: NASA
On Monday, at 1:40 p.m. EDT, Rubio’s flight time surpassed Vande Hei’s previous record of 355 days, 3 hours, and 45 minutes, set at the end of a space station mission that began on April 9, 2021. It ended with a landing in Kazakhstan on 30 March 2022. When he lands on September 27, Rubio will have traveled 370 days and 21 hours from Earth.
“Frank thought when he flew into space, he would be here for six months,” said astronaut Woody Hoburg before returning to Earth after his six-month mission. “And in the middle of his mission, he discovered that his mission had been going on for a year.
“His leadership here has been outstanding. He was so much fun to work with. And Frank made a huge sacrifice, being away from his family for so long, and I just want to really appreciate the service he gave us on the space station.”
The late cosmonaut Valery Polyakov holds the world record for the longest single spaceflight, 437 days and 18 hours, made aboard Russia’s Mir space station in 1994-1995. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly was the first American set a record of nearly a year in space (340 days), followed by Vande Hei (355 days), Christina Koch (329 days), and now Rubio (371 days).
Rubio, Prokopyev and Petylin will be replaced by a new Soyuz crew – Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara – scheduled to launch on Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Kononenko and Chubb also plan to spend a full year at the station. Next March, another Soyuz spacecraft will launch carrying veteran commander Oleg Novitsky, NASA’s Tracy Dyson and Belarusian researcher Marina Vasilevskaya.
Novitsky, Vasilevskaya and O’Hara will return to Earth about 10 days later. Kononenko, Chubb and Dyson will remain in orbit until next September. By the end of the year-long mission, Kononenko will have logged more than 1,000 days in space – another record – across five flights.
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2023-09-12 14:39:39
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