NASA astronaut Frank Rubio has just set a new U.S. spaceflight record, eclipsing the previous record of 355 consecutive days set by astronaut Mark Vande Hei aboard the International Space Station (ISS). And he’s not done yet.
Rubio is a member of Expedition 68, launched on Sep 21, 2022 aboard a Russian Soyuz. It’s his first mission to space too, but it was not supposed to last this long.
Extended mission
Rubio was only supposed to be on the ISS for 6 months, which is standard. But half-way through the mission, their docked Russian space capsule sprung a coolant leak when it was hit by space debris. But it was bad enough that Russia deemed it unsafe for anyone to fly back to Earth in.
Russia launched a replacement capsule to the ISS for them, and sent the leaking capsule back to Earth empty.
“Rubio’s journey in space embodies the essence of exploration,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson in a statement via social media. “As he breaks records as the longest serving NASA US astronaut in space, he also paves the way for future generations of astronauts. Your dedication is truly out of this world, Frank!”
Russia holds the world’s longest spaceflight records
Russian cosmonauts have everyone beat in records for longest space missions. Valeri Polyakov logged 437 continuous days in space in the mid-90s on the MIR space station.
As for TOTAL time in space over a career on multiple missions? Cosmonauts own that too. Gennadi Padalka has logged 879 days on 5 spaceflights. As for the U.S., former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson holds the American record, with 675 days.
Rubio will become first American to spend full year in space
Rubio is set to break another American spaceflight record soon too, when he returns to Earth on Sept. 27. When he does, he will have been in space for 371 days. That’s longer than any American has ever been in space on a single flight.
“I think this [duration] is really significant, in the sense that it teaches us that the human body can endure, it can adapt and — as we prepare to push back to the moon and then from there, onward onthopefully Mars and further on into the solar system,” said Rubio in an interview with Good Morning America. “I think it’s really important that we learn just how the human body learns to adapt, and how we can optimize that process so that we can improve our performance as we explore further and further out from Earth.”
