3 astronauts landed in the Kazakh steppe after a year on ISS

Photo: Collected

US astronaut Frank Rubio, who has shattered the American record for the longest continuous space flight, along with two Russian cosmonauts, made their triumphant return to Earth today. After spending over a year aboard the International Space Station (ISS), their Soyuz MS-23 capsule successfully undocked from the ISS a minute ahead of schedule, embarking on a journey that would take them approximately three and a half hours to reach the terra firma. Their landing site was located southeast of the city of Zhezqazghan in Kazakhstan.

With a grin on his face, the 47-year-old Rubio, who was on his maiden space voyage, expressed his joy at being back on Earth, joined by his Russian counterparts, 48-year-old Sergey Prokopyev and 40-year-old Dmitry Petelin. When asked about his crewmates, Rubio cheerfully commented, "Fantastic, yeah, everybody did really well."

In a lighthearted moment, Rubio was presented with a traditional Russian matryoshka doll, while Prokopyev was captured on camera, beaming with a watermelon he had requested for his post-landing treat. When queried about his souvenirs from space, Prokopyev simply quipped, "A good mood."

Mission control at Star City, situated just outside Moscow, reported that the trio was in good health after enduring more than a year in space, successfully touching down as scheduled at 1117 GMT.

Rubio's journey was nothing short of historic. On September 11, he surpassed the previous NASA record of 355 consecutive days in space, previously held by the now-retired US astronaut Mark Vande Hei. Notably, Rubio became the first American to spend a full year in space, a remarkable milestone in the annals of space exploration.

However, the world record for the longest continuous spaceflight still belongs to Russia's Valeri Polyakov, who spent an astonishing 437 consecutive days and 18 hours aboard the Mir space station between January 1994 and March 1995. Sadly, Polyakov passed away in September last year at the age of 80.

Roscosmos revealed that Prokopyev had accumulated more than 567 days in space over the course of his various missions.

Photo: Collected

Frank Rubio, born to Salvadoran parents in Los Angeles and raised in Miami, boasts an impressive resume. He is a board-certified family physician and flight surgeon, a former US Army special forces officer, and a decorated Blackhawk helicopter pilot with combat missions under his belt in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Speaking to reporters from the ISS eight days before his return to Earth, Rubio admitted that if he had known in advance that his mission would be extended to over a year, he might have declined the opportunity due to family obligations. Nevertheless, he ultimately embraced the mission extension with honor and grace.

Rubio acknowledged that it would likely take months to fully readjust to gravity and regain his strength and balance after an extended stay in microgravity. He eagerly anticipated the tranquility of his backyard, which would be a stark contrast to the constant drone and hum of machinery aboard the ISS. Rubio, a married man with four children, looks forward to reuniting with his family and savoring the simple pleasures of Earthly life once more.