A NASA astronaut and two cosmonauts landed today without problems on Earth after a record stay of more than a year on the International Space Station (ISS), as announced by the Russian Roscosmos agency.

“Today at 14:17 Moscow time [και ώρα Ελλάδας] the Soyuz spacecraft MS-23 capsule (…) with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio, who spent a year on the ISS, landed in the region of the city of Dzhezkazgan in KazakhstanRoscosmos reported.

“Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin spent 370 days, 21 hours and 22 minutes in space, i.e. the longest flight under the ISS programRoscosmos underlined in a statement.

For his part, the head of NASA, Bill Nelson, spoke of a “historic moment in space exploration”.

“Frank Rubio completed his 371-day journey in space, setting a new record for the longest space flight by a single American astronaut. Welcome home, Frank!» he wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter).

It had launched in September 2022 on a Russian rocket, with the idea of ​​departing for a classic six-month mission, along with the two Russian cosmonauts.

But the Soyuz craft that was supposed to carry them back to Earth — which remained tethered to the ISS as always so it could be used as a rescue craft if needed — suffered a leak in December, likely caused by a micrometeorite.

The Russian agency then decided as a precaution to bring back that craft and send another, empty, Soyuz MS-23. Frank Rubio and his two Russian colleagues therefore carried out the mission of the crew originally expected to arrive on this second vessel and replace them.

The previous record for an American was set in 2022 by astronaut Mark van Heij, with 355 consecutive days. The absolute record for the longest stay in space is held by Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, with 437 days.