WASHINGTON, D.C. — NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio set the American record for the longest single spaceflight late last year after spending 371 days in space during his mission.

What You Need To Know

  •  NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio set the American record for the longest single spaceflight

  • Rubio took off to the International Space Station in September 2022, but couldn't come back to Earth until September 2023 because of a coolant issue on his original spacecraft

  • He says he spent the first two to three months back home recovering and being studied by NASA

In September 2022, Rubio took off from Kazakhstan with two Russian astronauts headed to the International Space Station.

“The International Space Station, first and foremost, is a national and international laboratory,” Rubio told Spectrum News. “And so our main purpose other than exploring space is science, right? And we go up there and continue to try to develop biological sciences, and also, of course, technology, that we need to explore deeper into space.”

While aboard, Rubio worked in the Orbiting Biology Lab, performed maintenance on the station, and completed multiple spacewalks.

“The views are literally out of this world. It’s just an incredible thing to wake up every day and be able to look out at the cupola and appreciate how absolutely beautiful our planet is,” he said. 

Rubio says most of these types of missions “are about six months at a time,” before crews are swapped, but a surprise setback extended his trip by another six months. “Unfortunately, we think that a micro meteorite struck our spacecraft, and there was a subsequent coolant leak. And after the teams both here and in Russia did the analysis, they determined that the most safe path forward was to basically send a new spacecraft up for us,” he said. 

Asked if he was at all worried, he told Spectrum News, “You know, like a little bit, your mind does go there a little bit, but for the most part, honestly, it was a very slow and meticulous process, lots of analysis, lots of engineering, and there was no imminent danger when it did happen.”

After months of waiting, a replacement finally arrived and Rubio safely landed back to earth in September, setting the U.S. record for the longest single spaceflight.

“The first two or three months you spend focused on recovery, lots of science. You are essentially a walking science project, right? Because so few humans have been up there, we try to really dive deep into what changes happen while you’re up there, and then how your body recovers when you come back,” he said. 

As for Rubio’s future, he hopes to someday make a return to space. He says typically, astronauts go between four to six years between missions, as it takes a while to train.