Astronaut Frank Rubio has now been in low-Earth orbit for more than 355 days, breaking the record for the longest space mission by a U.S. astronaut.
Rubio 鈥� who has been on the International Space Station since September 2022 鈥� the previous record, held by retired NASA astronaut , at 1:40 p.m. ET on Monday, according to a spokesperson for the space agency.
What鈥檚 more, Rubio is on track to reach another significant milestone in a few weeks鈥� time. A Russian Soyuz capsule is not expected to return him and his two fellow crewmates 鈥� cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin 鈥� to Earth before September 27.
That means Rubio will have spent at least 371 days in orbit once he completes his mission. He is on the cusp of becoming the first American to spend more than one calendar year in microgravity.
Yet Rubio鈥檚 mission was not originally designed to break records.
When Rubio left for the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule on September 21, 2022, he and his crewmates believed they were carrying out a six-month mission. But the spacecraft that carried Rubio and his two Russian colleagues in December. Officials at Roscosmos, Russia鈥檚 space agency, later deemed the spacecraft unsafe to carry the crew back home.
Instead, the Soyuz MS-22 capsule returned to Earth without a crew on March 28. And Roscosmos launched a replacement spacecraft, MS-23, that with the space station on February 25. Rubio鈥檚 return date was pushed back to September as Russia prepared the next Soyuz vehicle, which will launch with a new crew of two cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut as early as Friday.
To commemorate Rubio鈥檚 feat, he recorded a conversation with Vande Hei on September 5. NASA is expected to air the footage on Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET on its .
鈥淩ubio鈥檚 journey in space embodies the essence of exploration,鈥� NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a Monday posted on social media.
鈥淎s he breaks records as the longest serving @NASA US astronaut in space, he also paves the way for future generations of astronauts,鈥� the statement reads. 鈥淵our dedication is truly out of this world, Frank!鈥�
IN THE RECORD BOOKS
If all goes to plan, and Rubio departs on September 27, his 371-day stay will not be a world record for the longest space mission. The late Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who logged 437 continuous days in orbit aboard Russia鈥檚 Mir space station between January 1994 and March 1995, holds that title.
Vande Hei had set a new U.S. record for the most consecutive days in space in 2022 after NASA and Roscosmos decided to extend his stay because Russia had sent a crew of two people to the space station to film a movie. Vande Hei鈥檚 return was delayed to allow for the additional traffic to the orbiting laboratory, though he at the time that he had known his mission might be extended before he arrived.
Before Vande Hei, U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly held the title for longest spaceflight by an American with his 340-day mission. That tour of duty was a planned extended mission, designed by NASA to of spaceflight on the human body.
A Russian cosmonaut also holds the current record for the most cumulative days in space. Gennadi Padalka that title, besting another cosmonaut in 2015, by notching a total of 879 days over the course of five separate spaceflights.
The U.S. record for the most accrued days in space is held by Peggy Whitson with a total of 675 days in orbit. Whitson, who from the NASA astronaut corps in 2018, has added to the record as recently as 2023. She now serves as a private astronaut for Axiom Space, which so far has hosted to the space station that have allowed paying customers to experience a trip to the orbiting laboratory alongside a veteran professional astronaut.
GETTING TO SPACE
Rubio travelled to the space station on a Russian spacecraft as part of between NASA and Roscosmos that was hashed out in the summer of 2022.
NASA officials assigned Rubio to ride aboard the Soyuz MS-22, while Roscosmos put cosmonaut Anna Kikina on a that took flight in October 2022 and March 11.
Despite geopolitical tensions between the United States and Russia as the war in Ukraine escalated, NASA has repeatedly said its partnership with Roscosmos is vital to continuing the space station鈥檚 operations and the valuable scientific research carried out on board.
At the time the ride-sharing agreement was announced, NASA said in a statement that inking such a deal with Russia was crucial to ensure 鈥渃ontinued safe operations鈥� of the space station. If either the Russian Soyuz spacecraft or the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule were to run into issues and be taken out of service, a seat-swap agreement would ensure that both U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts would still have access to the space station.
Roscosmos did not need to rely on a SpaceX capsule to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 crew ship, however, because the MS-23 spacecraft was prepared to fly and the coolant leak on the MS-22 vehicle did not necessarily point to possible issues with other Soyuz vehicles, officials noted.
Joel Montalbano, NASA鈥檚 International Space Station program manager, said during a news conference in July that Roscosmos had investigated the issue and found it was likely an 鈥渆xternal force鈥� that caused the leak, indicating a piece of orbital debris probably hit the spacecraft.
鈥淎 NASA team has also looked at it independent of the Russian team and we also cannot find anything 鈥� based on the information we鈥檝e been given by our Russian colleagues 鈥� of anything other than some type of external force or debris or something else like that,鈥� Montalbano said.
During his stay in space, Rubio has seen several crews of astronauts rotate through via SpaceX vehicles. Apart from the Axiom-2 crew that visited in May, the SpaceX Crew-6 astronauts have since Rubio鈥檚 arrival. And the Crew-7 group 鈥� which includes astronauts from NASA, Roscosmos, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency 鈥� at the station in August.
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