NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin have safely returned to Earth after a record-setting 371 days in space. They departed the International Space Station and landed in Kazakhstan using parachutes.
Rubio’s mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut, surpassing the previous record of 355 days. During this mission, he completed thousands of orbits and covered over 157 million miles.
The extended mission will help researchers understand the effects of long-duration spaceflight on humans as NASA plans future missions to the Moon and Mars.
Rubio and his crewmates initially launched on Soyuz MS-22 but returned to Earth on Soyuz MS-23 due to a coolant leak. They will undergo medical checks in Kazakhstan before Rubio returns to Houston.