Astronaut Frank Rubio safely returns home after months trapped in space

Latino astronaut Frank Rubio landed safely back on Earth on September 27 after being stranded at the International Space Station for an extra six months more than planned, for a total of 371 days, making his the third longest space flight in history and reaching a new US record.

He came back with two Russian Cosmonauts in a joint mission. They landed in Khasajastan after safely completing the process: burning through the atmosphere, separating the spacecraft's modules, and deploying two parachutes to ensure a safe landing.

Image: NASA TV / Roscosmos

Soyuz MS-23 commander Sergey Prokopyev told the team at Roscosmos that the crew was feeling fine as they went through all the landing stages.

Image: NASA TV / Roscosmos

During his last communication with the ISS, Rubio explained that adapting his body back to Earth's gravity force would take between two and six months, as he lost bone density and muscle mass after so many months in space. His recovery will be monitored.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson called Rubio's endurance "a major contribution to our understanding of long-duration missions." "His work paves the way for future exploration," he said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

It will add to other studies about the effects of prolonged space exploration on the body. Astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 days in space in 2012 so NASA could compare his body to his twin's back on Earth.

Kelly had the record for the longest time in space for a US astronaut until Mark Vande Hei endured a 355-day mission aboard the ISS due to a delayed return.

Frank Rubio shattered both records. He ended up spending 371 days on board the ISS. However, that was not the original plan: his mission was supposed to last only six months.

Rubio joined Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin on Expedition 68 to the ISS. He docked smoothly in a Russian Soyuz MS-22 rocket. Nearly two months later, a micrometeorite impact opened a hole in it, causing a coolant leak.

Their return trip to Earth was suspended. Engineers were concerned that, without coolant, the temperatures inside the capsule would be too high upon entering the Earth's atmosphere.

That is how Frank Rubio became the first US astronaut to spend more than a year in space. Still, that was not his only first: he was also the first astronaut of Salvadorian origin to travel into space.

"Everybody did really well. It's good to be home," Rubio said while being greeted by the Russian return mission crew in Khasjastan, where he will board a jet to fly back to the US.

Image: NASA TV / Roscosmos