{"id":590987,"date":"2023-09-12T20:17:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T17:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/astronaut-frank-rubio-sets-us-record-for-longest-trip-in-space\/"},"modified":"2023-09-12T20:17:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T17:17:50","slug":"astronaut-frank-rubio-sets-us-record-for-longest-trip-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/astronaut-frank-rubio-sets-us-record-for-longest-trip-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"#Astronaut Frank Rubio sets US record for longest trip in space"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Astronaut Frank Rubio has now been in low-Earth orbit for more than 355 days, breaking the record for the longest space mission by a US astronaut.\n <\/p>\n

\n Rubio \u2014 who has been on the International Space Station since September 2022 \u2014 bested the previous record, held by retired NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, at 1:40 p.m. ET on Monday, according to a spokesperson for the space agency.\n <\/p>\n

\n What\u2019s more, Rubio is on track to reach another significant milestone in a few weeks\u2019 time. A Russian Soyuz capsule is not expected to return him and his two fellow crewmates \u2014 cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin \u2014 to Earth before September 27.\n <\/p>\n

\n That means Rubio will have spent at least 371 days in orbit once he completes his mission. He is on the cusp of becoming the first American to spend more than one calendar year in microgravity.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet Rubio\u2019s mission was not originally designed to break records.\n <\/p>\n

\n When Rubio left for the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule on September 21, 2022, he and his crewmates believed they were carrying out a six-month mission. But the spacecraft that carried Rubio and his two Russian colleagues\u00a0sprang a coolant leak\u00a0in December. Officials at Roscosmos, Russia\u2019s space agency, later deemed the spacecraft unsafe to carry the crew back home.\n <\/p>\n

\n Instead, the Soyuz MS-22 capsule returned to Earth without a crew on March 28. And Roscosmos launched a replacement spacecraft, MS-23, that\u00a0docked\u00a0with the space station on February 25. Rubio\u2019s return date was pushed back to September as Russia prepared the next Soyuz vehicle, which will launch with a new crew of two cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut as early as Friday.\n <\/p>\n

\n To commemorate Rubio\u2019s feat, he recorded a conversation with Vande Hei on September 5, which aired on NASA\u2019s media<\/a> channel on Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMy family has been kind of the cornerstone that\u2019s inspired me to hopefully keep somewhat of a good attitude while I\u2019ve been up here,\u201d Rubio told Vande Hei. \u201cThe resilience that my wife and kids showed \u2014 they they faced a lot of challenges this past year, and just thrived throughout the whole entire process \u2026 I\u2019m incredibly grateful for them and for that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also commemorated Rubio\u2019s record-setting milestone in a social media post on Monday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cRubio\u2019s journey in space embodies the essence of exploration,\u201d the statement<\/a> reads.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs he breaks records as the longest serving @NASA US astronaut in space, he also paves the way for future generations of astronauts,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cYour dedication is truly out of this world, Frank!\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n If all goes to plan, and Rubio departs on September 27, his 371-day stay will not be a world record for the longest space mission. The late Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who logged 437 continuous days in orbit aboard Russia\u2019s Mir space station between January 1994 and March 1995, holds that title.\n <\/p>\n

\n Vande Hei had set a new US record for the most consecutive days in space in 2022 after NASA and Roscosmos decided to extend his stay because Russia had sent a crew of two people to the space station to film a movie. Vande Hei\u2019s return was delayed to allow for the additional traffic to the orbiting laboratory, though he\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0at the time that he had known his mission might be extended before he arrived.\n <\/p>\n

\n Before Vande Hei, US astronaut Scott Kelly held the title for longest spaceflight by an American with his 340-day mission. That tour of duty was a planned extended mission, designed by NASA to\u00a0study the long-term effects\u00a0of spaceflight on the human body.\n <\/p>\n

\n A Russian cosmonaut also holds the current record for the most cumulative days in space. Gennadi Padalka earned<\/a> that title, besting another cosmonaut in 2015, by notching a total of 879 days over the course of five separate spaceflights.\n <\/p>\n

\n The US record for the most accrued days in space is held by Peggy Whitson with a total of 675 days in orbit. Whitson, who retired<\/a> from the NASA astronaut corps in 2018, has added to the record as recently as 2023. She now serves as a private astronaut for Axiom Space, which so far has hosted two commercial trip<\/a>s to the space station that have allowed paying customers to experience a trip to the orbiting laboratory alongside a veteran professional astronaut.\n <\/p>\n

\n Rubio traveled to the space station on a Russian spacecraft as part of\u00a0crew-swapp<\/a>ing agreement\u00a0between NASA and Roscosmos that was hashed out in the summer of 2022.\n <\/p>\n

\n NASA officials assigned Rubio to ride aboard the Soyuz MS-22, while Roscosmos put cosmonaut Anna Kikina on a\u00a0SpaceX Crew Dragon mission\u00a0that took flight in October 2022 and\u00a0returned home\u00a0March 11.\n <\/p>\n

\n Despite geopolitical tensions between the United States and Russia as the war in Ukraine escalated, NASA has repeatedly said its partnership with Roscosmos is vital to continuing the space station\u2019s operations and the valuable scientific research carried out on board.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the time the ride-sharing agreement was announced, NASA said in a statement that inking such a deal with Russia was crucial to ensure \u201ccontinued safe operations\u201d of the space station. If either the Russian Soyuz spacecraft or the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule were to run into issues and be taken out of service, a seat-swap agreement would ensure that both US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts would still have access to the space station.\n <\/p>\n

\n Roscosmos did not need to rely on a SpaceX capsule to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 crew ship, however, because the MS-23 spacecraft was prepared to fly and the coolant leak on the MS-22 vehicle did not necessarily point to possible issues with other Soyuz vehicles, officials noted.\n <\/p>\n

\n Joel Montalbano, NASA\u2019s International Space Station program manager, said during a news conference in July that Roscosmos had investigated the issue and found it was likely an \u201cexternal force\u201d that caused the leak, indicating a piece of orbital debris probably hit the spacecraft.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cA NASA team has also looked at it independent of the Russian team and we also cannot find anything \u2014 based on the information we\u2019ve been given by our Russian colleagues \u2014 of anything other than some type of external force or debris or something else like that,\u201d Montalbano said.\n <\/p>\n

\n During his stay in space, Rubio has seen several crews of astronauts rotate through via SpaceX vehicles. Apart from the Axiom-2 crew that visited in May, the SpaceX Crew-5 and Crew-6 astronauts have come and gone since Rubio\u2019s arrival. And the Crew-7 group \u2014 which includes astronauts from NASA, Roscosmos, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency \u2014 arrived at the station in August.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve been in space with 25 other people, and by the time [the next Soyuz flight gets] here, it\u2019ll be 28 which is pretty phenomenal,\u201d Rubio told Vande Hei. \u201cAnd every one of them have just been great crewmates, very special people and they hold special places now because I\u2019ve been able to share this experience with them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n