NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Returns to Earth After Year-long Mission

NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Returns to Earth After Year-long Mission

Expedition 69 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio holds a matryoshka doll he was gifted outside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft after he landed with Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is seen outside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft after he landed

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is seen resting and talking with NASA ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano, kneeling left, NASA Flight Surgeon Josef Schmid, red hat, and NASA Chief of the Astronaut Office Joe Acaba, outside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft after he landed 

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is is seen inside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is helped out of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft just minutes after he landed

Russian Search and Rescue teams arrive at the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft shortly after it landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan

The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio ended his record-breaking time in space with a parachute-assisted landing in the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, on Sept. 27, 2023.

Rubio arrived at the International Space Station on Sept. 21, 2022, spending 371 days in low Earth orbit, and breaking the previous American record held by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei by 16 days.

During his 371 days aboard the station, Rubio experienced:

- Approximately 5,936 orbits of Earth

- Approximately 157,412,306 statute miles traveled (equivalent of approximately 328 round trips to the Moon and back)

- Fifteen spacecraft visited the International Space Station, including four Roscosmos Progress cargo ships, two Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft, two Roscosmos Soyuz, four crewed SpaceX Dragons, and three uncrewed SpaceX Dragons.

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Release Date: Sept. 28, 2023

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