NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Inadvertently Breaks Record for Longest U.S. Space Mission

Rubio was the first NASA astronaut to launch to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket since April 2021.

When astronaut Frank Rubio launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in September 2022, he was scheduled to return back to Earth in six months’ time. Rubio’s ride to his home planet, however, suffered a malfunction that left him stranded in low Earth orbit. As a result of the mishap, Rubio is set to spend more than a year in space, breaking the record for the longest duration mission by a U.S. astronaut.

On Monday, the NASA astronaut will beat the previous record of 355 days set by Mark Vande Hei in 2022. Rubio will return to Earth no earlier than September 27, logging in 371 days in Earth orbit and becoming the first U.S. astronaut, and one of only six people, to spend a year in space.

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Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio’s stay on the station was extended for another six months, and the three-person crew is set to return on board Soyuz MS-23 later this month. Similarly to Rubio, the previous record-holder, Vande Hei, was also not aware of the amount of time he would end up spending on the ISS before launching to Earth orbit. Instead, Vande Hei’s stay on the space station was also extended to accommodate a two-person Russian film crew shooting a movie on the ISS.

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