NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who spent record-setting 371 days in space, returned to Earth on September 27, 2023, at 7:17 am EDT (4:47 pm IST). Rubio holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American. He returned to Earth with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin. The Soyuz spacecraft in which they returned to Earth undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 3:54 am EDT (1:24 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.
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.
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Gennady Ivanovich Padalka, a Russian cosmonaut, holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by any human.
Rubio, Petelin, and Prokopyev were launched towards the ISS on September 21, 2022.
During his time on the ISS, Rubio completed 5,936 orbits, and traversed a distance which is equivalent to 328 trips to the Moon and back. While he was on the orbital laboratory, 15 spacecraft arrived at the ISS, and 14 departed it.
Since NASA plans to send humans to the Moon as part of the Artemis missions, and also intends to send humans for long-duration missions to Mars, Rubik's extended spaceflight will allow scientists to understand how long-duration spaceflight affects the human body.
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Rubio conducted important scientific research during his stay on the ISS. He carried out plant research and also physical science studies.
Now that Soyuz MS-23 has brought back Rubio, Petelin, and Prokopyev back to Earth, Expedition 70 has officially started on the station.
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Now, seven people are living on the ISS. These are: NASA astronauts Loral O'Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub. Mogensen became the commander of the ISS on September 26.
A few days after NASA SpaceX's Crew-8 arrives at the ISS, Moghbeli, Mogensen, Furukawa, and Borisov will return to the Earth. They are scheduled to return in February 2024.
In March 2024, O'Hara will return to Earth.
Kononenko and Chub will spend a year on the ISS, and return to Earth in September 2024.