In the course of the last minutes of Rubio’s 371-day keep on the Worldwide Area Station, a NASA reside feed digital camera confirmed Rubio shaking arms and hugging mates, often smiling and his wristwatch. Rubio’s last act on the house middle was to pose for some last-minute pictures earlier than coming into the Soyuz MS-23 car that was to take him house. Hatches of the spacecraft closed at 00:41 a.m. Wednesday, in line with NASA.
He’s anticipated to land in Kazakhstan round 7 a.m. Japanese time Wednesday, in line with NASA.
For an anxious few months, Rubio’s return had been doubtful. The spacecraft that he clambered into was a hasty alternative for the Soyuz that launched to carry him and two Russian cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, to the Worldwide Area Station on Sept. 21, 2022. A coolant leak on that vessel required NASA and Russian house company Roscosmos to ship Rubio and his stranded crewmates a alternative spacecraft for his or her experience house, delaying the arrival of a brand new staff of astronauts to alleviate them.
And so Rubio’s deliberate six-month keep on the Worldwide Area Station was doubled, touchdown him a NASA report. Rubio’s 371-day spaceflight topped the earlier report of 355 days held by Mark Vande Hei, who returned from the house station in March 2022. Throughout Rubio’s mission, he traveled 157 million miles, or 5,963 orbits of the Earth, NASA mentioned.
The world report for the longest steady spaceflight is held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 days aboard the Russian house station Mir between 1994 and 1995.
Rubio instructed reporters final week that spending the additional time away from his household in Miami taxed him. Confronted upfront with the prospect of spending a 12 months aboard the ISS, “I most likely would have declined,” he mentioned. However he knew he was signing up for the sudden as an astronaut. Rubio credited the opposite 28 crewmates who rotated by means of the house station throughout his keep for maintaining his spirits up.
“To have flown with that many individuals … is basically fairly particular,” Rubio mentioned in a September interview with Vande Hei shared by NASA.
Rubio made probably the most of his further time in orbit. He helped conduct a number of science experiments aboard the Worldwide Area Station, together with six geared towards finding out the results of extended spaceflight on the human physique. Rubio grew tomatoes aboard the house station, examined zero-gravity train gear and supplied organic samples that may assist NASA plan for future missions to the moon and Mars that would lengthen even longer than his spaceflight, the company mentioned.
Larger than Rubio’s feat of resilience, although, was his household’s, he instructed Vande Hei.
“Actually, my household has been type of the cornerstone that’s impressed me to hopefully preserve considerably of a very good perspective whereas I’ve been up right here,” Rubio mentioned. “The resilience that my spouse and children confirmed. They confronted quite a lot of challenges this previous 12 months, they usually simply thrived all through the entire whole course of.”
Rubio mentioned he’d loosen up within the quiet of his Miami yard upon returning to Earth. After he lands in Kazakhstan, he’ll return with NASA to Houston, the place he’ll be only one extra quick flight away from house. This one, hopefully, gained’t be delayed.
Andrew Jeong in Seoul contributed to this report.
