NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who recently broke the record for the longest single stay in space by a NASA astronaut, is set to return to Earth this Wednesday. Rubio spent over a year on the International Space Station (ISS) and will be accompanied by two Roscosmos cosmonauts, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, who have also been on the station for 371 days.
Their return journey will be live-streamed by NASA for those interested in watching. The trio will be traveling back to Earth in a Russian Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft, which will undock from the station’s Prichal module before landing near Jezkazgan, Kazakhstan. From there, they will fly to Karaganda, Kazakhstan, and Rubio will then proceed to Houston on a NASA plane.
The reason for their extensive stay in space was an issue with their original spacecraft, the Soyuz MS-22. During December 2022, the spacecraft was found to be leaking coolant fluid, posing a danger to human travel. A replacement Soyuz, the MS-23, was sent in February and the MS-22 returned to Earth without passengers. The replacement spacecraft has not faced any issues.
The return journey of the Soyuz MS-23 will be livestreamed on NASA TV, starting at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday, September 27. The coverage will include the crew’s farewells, hatch closing, undocking, and the deorbit burn and landing. The livestream can be viewed on NASA’s live YouTube stream or through the embedded video on the page.
