Longest Astronaut In Space: Who Is He?

Longest Astronaut In Space (Finne Serafin Image-Unsplash)

YOGYAKARTA - Astronaut Frank Rubio set a record as the first American (US) to carry out the longest space expedition: 371 days. He broke the record set by NASA (US Aeronautics and Space Administration) astronaut Mark Vande Hei in March last year by being on the International Space Station (ISS) for 355 days. So who is the longest astronaut in space?

Rubio returned to earth on Wednesday, September 27 with two Russian cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin. The Soyuz capsule carrying them landed in an inland zone near the city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. "It feels good to be home," said the 47-year-old astronaut after being released from the capsule, as reported by The Guardian.

Rubio set the record by accident. Because, initially the mission only lasted 180 days. It was his first mission to the ISS. Rubio will depart with Prokopyev and Petelin for the ISS on September 21, 2022.

They boarded the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. Appropriately, it was the same plane that brought them back at the beginning of this year. Unfortunately, that can't be done.

After 3 months of being on the ISS, it was clear that there was a problem with Soyuz MS-22. The plane emits fuel particles into space making it uncomfortable to drive.

Ars Technica said in January that there was a possibility it was due to a collision with a small meteor or space debris flying nearby.

On the other hand, Russian engineers suspect that a piece of space debris penetrated the radiator of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule. Engineers, whether from Russia or NASA, fear that without cooling, electronic equipment in the capsule and its occupants could overheat to dangerous levels. Because of this, Soyuz MS-22 returned to earth as planned, but empty without passengers.

Unfortunately, at the same time, there were no replacement capsules ready to be sent. A replacement Soyuz capsule to bring back Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin was only launched this month. The capsule finally arrived at the ISS 2 weeks later and successfully brought them back to earth.

“There is no one more deserving of returning home to their family than you,” said new space station commander Andreas Mogensen of Denmark earlier this week.

Longest Astronaut in Space

Prokopyev and Petelin did not set records like Rubio. Because Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov holds a world record that was broken in the 1990s by being on the Mir space station for 437 days. Thomas Pesquet from France, on the other hand, was on the ISS for 396 days.

Prokopyev told the ground controller that during the descent the three felt fine. They experienced more than 4 times the gravitational force when the capsule they were traveling in shot through the atmosphere, then landed on the barren steppes of Kazakhstan and ended up on its side. The helicopter moved with the recovery crew to pick up the astronauts.

Rubio, on the other hand, said that if he had known from the start that his mission would last more than a year, he might have refused. The man who is a military doctor and helicopter pilot feels that he has lost various meaningful moments for his family while in space.

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