Frank Rubio, the record holder for the longest stay in space on a NASA mission, last interacted with the public on Earth on Tuesday, September 19, in which he answered various questions from the press about his long stay. Experience on the International Space Station (ISS).
Rubio’s briefing from the ISS can be seen live on NASA’s official YouTube channel.
His return to Earth is scheduled for Wednesday, September 27, his last link to the public while in orbit. After that, you should recover physically within 2 to 6 months.
More than a year in space
Rubio, of Salvadoran parentage, arrived at the ISS in September 2022 for a 6-month mission that will last until March 2023. However, a failure in the cooling system of his vehicle that took him and brought him back (the Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft) forced it to postpone its return without a firm date.
Fortunately, in February of this year, the Russian space agency Roscosmos sent a Soyuz MS-23 cargo shuttle carrying half a ton of supplies to the ISS, and agreed with NASA that it would be the return vehicle. American astronaut.
Rubio will return to Earth on September 27, when he will have completed 371 days in low Earth orbit, a record number for a NASA astronaut. On his journey, he will be accompanied by cosmonauts Sergei Prokofiev (commander) and Dmitrij Bedlin (engineer).
Before Rubio, the American record for longest time in space was held by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hey, who spent 355 days off the planet.
«“It’s a great honor to represent the Latino race.”
In a call to Earth, Frank Rubio answered a variety of questions from American and Latino journalists interested in how he stayed so long and how his experience will help future human missions to the Moon and Mars.
For Rubio, while the physical fatigue was indeed significant, “the psychological factor was more exhausting than he thought” and being in contact with others helped him a lot.
“Having a good team around you is incredibly helpful. Likewise, keep yourself busy, but not too busy, and find a balance between work and leisure.
Asked if he would have been encouraged to participate in the mission if it had been scheduled a year from the start, Rubio responded that he would have turned down the offer for family reasons.
“If they had asked me in advance before starting the training, I would have refused because you train one or two years before your work, it was only for the family, because I would have missed the most important events,” he declared.
“It’s a great honor to represent the Latino and Hispanic community. My message to young people is to keep working and studying. “Latinos will be a big part of America in the future,” he said in one of his last appearances from space.
