Americans and two Russians return to Earth – six months too late – Russia apparently wants to set up new brigades in Ukraine

A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts returned to Earth on Wednesday – finally, you might say. The three of them had to extend their trip by half a year to just over a year. An unintended consequence of this: American astronaut Frank Rubio now holds the record for the longest American space flight.

The trio landed in a remote area of ​​Kazakhstan in a Soyuz capsule provided as backup. She was deployed in February. Russian engineers suspect the original capsule was hit by space debris. This probably punctured the capsule’s radiator; When it docked with the International Space Station, it lost all its coolant.

371 instead of 180 days

The mission was originally supposed to last six months. In the end it was a stay of 371 days. American Rubio spent more than two weeks longer in space than Mark Vande Hei, who held NASA’s previous ‘endurance record’ for a single space flight. Russia currently holds the world record of 437 days. It was founded in the mid-1990s.

Just this month, a Soyuz capsule with a new crew was sent out. The new crew finally reached the ISS two weeks ago. “No one deserves to return to their families more than you,” the new space station commander, Dane Andreas Mogensen, said early this week.

“Important family moments” missed.

The stay seemed to take its toll on the astronauts. Rubio, 47, said at a news conference last week that if he had been asked, he would never have agreed to a full year in space. The psychological aspect of being in space for so long was more difficult than he expected, said Rubio, who in addition to his job last year also works as an Army doctor and helicopter pilot. He also missed important moments in his family’s lives. These included the oldest of his four children’s first year at the US Naval Academy and another child’s first year at a military academy.

By the way: the difference between “cosmonaut” and “astronaut” is only due to the space organization used. In Russia (and previously throughout the Soviet Union and the GDR), the astronaut is called a ‘cosmonaut’, while American and European astronauts are called astronauts.

(lacquer)