Frank Rubio It not only stands out for being one of the few representatives of the Hispanic world in outer space. In addition, the NASA astronaut, son of Salvadorans, will be the owner of a historical record: he will soon become the member of that agency with the longest stay off our planet.
When he returns to Earth in September, Rubio will have passed 371 consecutive days in space. It is a mark that no other representative of the US space agency has reached to date.
The traveler will stay with the record now held by Scott Kelly, who spent 340 days in space between 2015 and 2016. Meanwhile, Rubio surpasses another well-known last name in space history textbooks: Christina Koch. She spent 328 days on the International Space Station (ISS), between March 2019 and February 2020.
By the way, the 44-year-old American Koch will return to space on NASA’s Artemis 2 mission, as part of the agency’s new plans to take humans to the Moon this decade.
Frank Rubio’s record was not planned by NASA
The curious fact that the newspaper collects Clarion the thing is The milestone of the Salvadoran will be, in part, accidental. At this precise moment, the 47-year-old Central American is on the ISS, the laboratory that orbits about 400 kilometers from the Earth’s surface.
He arrived in September of last year on the Soyuz MS-22 mission, a ship that months later had a coolant leak and had to return to Earth without a crew on board. Since then, the return of ISS astronauts has been a challenge.
The plan was for Frank Rubio to come “home” in the fall of the northern hemisphere. However, logistical problems delay his return. So much so that in many reports about his adventure at the International Station they describe him as “the astronaut stranded in space”.
Life in space: who holds the absolute record?
As we have pointed out, the mark that Frank Rubio will break is restricted to members of NASA. The global record is held by Valeri Poliakovfrom the Roscosmos agency, who spent 437 days in space in the mid-90s. The Russian passed away less than a year ago.
Besides, The person who spent the most days (non-consecutive) away from Earth is Pegghy Winston of NASA.with a total of 675 days.
Facts about Frank Rubio
- He was born in Los Angeles, United States; but his parents are salvadorans.
- As a child he spoke both English and Spanish.
- During his childhood he lived in Colombia.
- He has experience as a helicopter pilot in the United States Army; he is also a flight surgeon.
- In 2017, he was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 22.
- He left for the ISS on September 21, 2022 together with the cosmonauts of the Russian agency Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin.
- As he himself recounted in an interview with univision, is dedicated to crops in orbit, studying methods to generate food reserves. The focus is on future expeditions to the Moon and Mars, planned by the United States space agency.