Finally, this Wednesday, September 27, Frank Rubio will be home. He spent more than a year on the International Space Station due to a failure in the ship that would bring him back to Earth, when he was destined to spend only six months on a mission.
The NASA astronaut, surgeon, soldier of the North American Army and son of Salvadorans, accidentally implanted a new record for Americans, 371 days in space.
Now he is scheduled to return on the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft. along with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dimitri Petelin. The three arrived on September 21, 2022 at the International Space Station.
However, neither Prokopyev nor Petelin established permanence records, since the absolute is in the hands of their compatriot, Valeri Poliakov, with 437 days under his belt.
“I have experienced a mix of emotions, a rollercoaster of emotions, because professionally it was an incredible challenge, incredibly rewarding,” said the son of Salvadorans.
“One thing I have tried to do, and I hope I have accomplished (I certainly haven’t done it perfectly) is to maintain a positive and stable attitude throughout the mission, despite the internal ups and downs,” he added.
According to the Roscosmos and NASA schedule, the trio will depart from the International Space Station this Wednesday at 3:54 a.m. ET, landing at 7:17 a.m. on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the city of Dzherzkazgan.
Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev and Dimitri Petelin will then travel to the Kazakh town of Karaganda. The North American will immediately board a NASA plane back to Houston.
A coolant leak on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft prevented both Rubio and his companions from returning to Earth when originally scheduled, six months ago.
From there they had to remain in space on a mission that included more than 253 million kilometers and 5,963 orbits to the Earth.
Rubio broke the space record for a NASA astronaut, that Mark Vande Hei had (355 days). Starting this Wednesday, he will be able to rest among his loved ones, after the odyssey he experienced.