Record-setting US astronaut Frank Rubio, 2 Russian cosmonauts land in Kazakhstan

ALMATY, Kazakhstan – US astronaut Frank Rubio, who broke the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by an American, and two Russian cosmonauts landed in the steppe of Kazakhstan on Wednesday after more than a year on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Soyuz MS-23 undocked from the ISS a minute earlier than scheduled, and took around three and a half hours to make it down to Earth, landing south-east of the city of Zhezqazghan.

“The crew feel fine,” Moscow mission control said, as the capsule parachuted down and landed in a cloud of dust. “The landing has taken place.”

“The crew have returned to Earth after a year on the ISS,” Russia’s Roscosmos, Russia’s space corporation, said after the landing on time at 1117 GMT (7.17pm in Singapore).

Lieutenant-Colonel Rubio, who is 47 and on his first space voyage, travelled back to Earth with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, 48, and Dmitry Petelin, 40.

Shortly after entering the atmosphere, it will unfurl a parachute and is due to land in the grassland steppe of Kazakhstan, around 148km south-east of the city of Zhezqazghan, at 11.17 GMT.

They are six months late to return because

their original spacecraft sprang a leak,

so a replacement had to be sent up to get them back. That gave the two Russians and Lt-Col Rubio an unexpectedly extended mission of 371 days in orbit.

On Sept 11,

Lt-Col Rubio surpassed the previous Nasa record

of 355 consecutive days in space set by now-retired US astronaut Mark Vande Hei.

Lt-Col Rubio is also the first American to spend a full year in space.

Though he broke the American record, Lt-Col Rubio and his Russian colleagues are far from the Russian record.

Mr Valeri Polyakov, a Russian, holds the world record for the longest space journey ever - 437 consecutive days and 18 hours during a Mir space station mission between January 1994 and March 1995.

Mr Polyakov died last September, aged 80.

Lt-Col Rubio, the son of Salvadoran parents who was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Miami, is a board-certified family physician and flight surgeon, a onetime US Army special forces officer and a decorated Blackhawk helicopter pilot who flew combat missions in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Speaking to reporters from orbit eight days before his return to Earth, Lt-Col Rubio said he probably would have turned down what became his first spaceflight had he known in advance that the mission would go on for at least a year.

Lt-Col Rubio, who is married with four children, cited family obligations, but in the end he said he felt honoured and took the extension of the mission in stride.

He said it would likely take months to regain his full sense of balance and strength after a prolonged stay in microgravity, and that he looks forward to the quiet of his backyard, compared with the constant drone and hum of machinery while aboard the ISS. REUTERS