After spending a record-setting 371 days in space, a NASA Astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts returned home to Earth.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 3:54 am EDT (1:24 pm IST) in a Soyuz spacecraft and returned to Earth on September 27, 2023, at 7:17 am EDT (4:47 pm IST).
In less than four hours, Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin landed southeast of Dzhezkazgan, a town in Kazakhstan.
After Rubio returned to Earth, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote on X that this is a “historic moment” in space exploration. Prokopyev and Petelin also completed 371 days in space. Rubio, Petelin, and Prokopyev were launched toward the ISS on September 21, 2022.
The previous record for the longest single spaceflight by a US astronaut was held by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei. He had spent 355 days in space. Gennady Ivanovich Padalka, a Russian cosmonaut, holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by any human.
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