Frank Rubio, an American astronaut, broke the NASA record for the longest mission in orbit. The astronaut spent more than 355 days on the International Space Station.
Speaking to NASA on Wednesday, Rubio said from the International Space Station: “In some ways, it’s been an incredible challenge. But in other ways, it’s been an incredible blessing.”
On Monday, the astronaut broke the old record. He then expressed his eagerness to reach 365 days. Rubio is a doctor by training, and he is also a helicopter pilot. On the thought of reaching 355 days, he said, “I think that will be a really good milestone for our nation to reach.”
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Rubio broke the record
In 2022, the previous American record was set by Mark Vande. The astronaut spent a total of 355 days in space. However, the world record was set by Valery Polyakov, a Russian cosmonaut, who spent 437 days in space.
Rubio will return to Earth on September 27 after spending 371 days in space.
Rubio went to the ISS last year on a Russian Soyuz rocket, along with two other cosmonauts. The mission was supposed to spend a total of six months in space, which is actually the normal duration of a mission.
The usual procedure involves a rocket that remains attached to the ISS, acting as an emergency ship in case of need. Its purpose is to return three passengers to the month of December. However, there was a leak, perhaps due to the impact of a small meteorite.
So Roscosmos returned the rocket and sent another without any crew.
Rubio, together with his two colleagues, carried out the mission of the crew.
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Rubio is Latin American. He saw many crews in space, almost a total of 28 people of different nationalities.
“If I do the math right, that’s almost five percent of the people who have ever been in space, which is pretty incredible,” Rubio said Wednesday.
He also talked about experiments and life in low Earth orbit.
“When you’re up here for a while, you really focus on the job and sometimes you forget to appreciate the fact that you’re floating around and you have this amazing view below you,” Rubio said.
He said the premises were cramped. He said of this: “And so, psychologically for a year, it was a bit of a challenge.”
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Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education