Army Lt. Col. Frank Rubio returned to Earth after accomplishing a feat no American before him ever achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The soldier-turned-NASA-astronaut landed back on solid ground in Kazakhstan<\/a> after spending 371 days in low Earth orbit, earning him the record of the longest single spaceflight by an American.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He surpassed the previous United States record<\/a> of 355 days on Sept. 11, which was held by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei. Russia holds the world record of longest single spaceflight at 437 days, set in the mid-1990s, according to the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the yearlong trip among the stars was not planned to be quite so lengthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rubio launched<\/a> with two cosmonauts aboard Roscosmos Soyuz MS-22 on Sept. 21, 2022. The crew expected to stay only six months, but the spacecraft experienced a coolant leak<\/a> that resulted in an extension of their mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a recent news conference, Rubio said<\/a> that if asked beforehand to spend a full year in space, he likely would have politely said no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf they had asked me up front before…training, because you do train for a year or two years for your mission, I probably would have declined,\u201d he said, while floating aboard the International Space Station. \u201cIt would have hurt, but I would have declined and that\u2019s only because of family, things that were going on this past year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the United States looks toward exploring further in space, including eventual manned missions to Mars, prolonged journeys outside Earth\u2019s atmosphere filled with various challenges for the isolated astronauts<\/a> may become more regular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrank\u2019s record-breaking time in space is not just a milestone; it\u2019s a major contribution to our understanding of long-duration space missions,\u201d NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n