NASA Astronaut Comes Home After Record Breaking Stay In Space
It’s a wonderful feeling to read NASA Astronaut Comes Home. After 371 days, Astronaut Frank Rubio is glad to be home after his extraordinary space ride. Astronaut Frank Rubio Time…
ZHEZKAZGAN, KAZAKHSTAN – SEPTEMBER 27: Expedition 69 NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is carried to a medical tent shortly after he, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev landed in their Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on September 27, 2023 near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The trio are returning to Earth after logging 371 days in space as members of Expeditions 68-69 aboard the International Space Station. For Rubio, his mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in history. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)
It's a wonderful feeling to read NASA Astronaut Comes Home. After 371 days, Astronaut Frank Rubio is glad to be home after his extraordinary space ride.
Astronaut Frank Rubio Time In Space Breaks Record
According to NASA.com:
During his mission, Rubio completed approximately 5,936 orbits and a journey of more than 157 million miles, roughly the equivalent of 328 trips to the Moon and back. He witnessed the arrival of 15 visiting spacecraft and the departure of 14 visiting spacecraft representing crewed and uncrewed cargo missions.
Frank's 371 day at the International Space Station breaks the record for the longest spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut, breaking the previous record of 355 days last year. Reportedly, Frank said if he knew it would be THAT long, he may have not agreed to it.
The World Is Still Fascinated With Space
While we don't sit in front of the TV watching moon landings anymore depicted in 1980's movies, the world has been fascinated with space travel. Since July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon, we realized that perhaps, the Universe is closer than we thought.
Space travel inspired pop culture with futuristic portrayals of space with Star Trek. (Or the case of Star Wars, the past..."A long long time ago..") Elton John and David Bowie jumped in with hits like Rocket Man and Space Oddity. In modern times, the smash TV show Big Bang Theory even offered up a character that became an astronaut that went to space.
The NASA Of Our Childhood
Many of us learned about NASA in school. Growing up in Worcester, I became fascinated with space, like many kids. One summer, I wrote to NASA, yes, with my ten year old penmanship on three lined paper, asking for photos of their latest space missions. What happened next was truly wonderful. About six weeks later, in my mailbox, I received a GIANT envelope. It featured the beautiful NASA logo on the outside. On the inside, out popped a dozen, beautiful glossy COLOR photos of the latest NASA missions, or what we called today, the latest NASA Press Kit.
In those days, there was no website, no Google Images, no contact information. All I had was an address to NASA. Somehow, this ten year old's letter got to the correct department, and six weeks later, BOOM! I had a bedroom wall plastered with the latest photos from the NASA space program.
Well, our as NASA Astronaut comes home safe, we look forward to our next successful NASA mission.
Me? I didn't become an astronaut. But my voice each day, comes out of the top of Prudential Tower, and of course the internet on our app around the world, playing Rocket Man. Does that make me Space Cowboy? Insert Steve Miller, here.
