United States: Three astronauts have successfully landed on Earth after being stuck in space for just over a year. The Soyuz capsule, launched in February, brought back American astronaut Mr. Frank Rubio and Russia’s cosmonauts Mr. Sergey Prokopyev and Mr. Dmitri Petelin. Mr. Rubio set a record for the longest US spaceflight as a result of his extended stay in space.
The astronauts landed in a remote area of Kazakhstan in a Soyuz capsule, which was a replacement after their original ride was hit by space junk and lost all its coolant. This turned the 180-day mission into a 371-day stay.
Mr. Rubio spent more than two weeks longer in space than Mr. Mark Vande Hei, who held Nasa’s previous record for a single spaceflight. Russia holds the world record of 437 days, set in the mid-1990s.
“No one deserves to go home to their families more than you,” the space station’s new commander, Denmark’s Mr. Andreas Mogensen, said earlier this week.
Mr. Prokopyev informed ground controllers throughout the descent that all three were feeling good. They experienced more than four times the force of gravity as their capsule streaked through the atmosphere and came to a touchdown in the barren Kazakh steppes. Helicopters moved in with recovery crews to fetch the astronauts.
“It’s good to be home,” Mr. Rubio shared after being pulled from the capsule. The American astronaut stated that the psychological aspect of spending so long in space was tougher than he expected. Mr. Rubio may hold this record for a while since NASA has no immediate plans for year-long missions.
It was the first spaceflight for Mr. Rubio and Mr. Petelin. The 48-year-old Mr. Prokopyev, an engineer and pilot, has now completed two long station stints. The trio has logged 253 million kilometres since launching from Kazakhstan last September and has circled the world nearly 6,000 times.
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