The Soyuz MS-23 capsule undocked at 9:54 am Italian time from the International Space Station to begin its return to Earth. The detachment operations from the ISS concluded regularly and the re-entry maneuver into the atmosphere is scheduled for 12.24pm and arrival in Kazakhstan at 1.17pm Italian time. On board the cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev, in the role of commander, the co-pilot Dmitri Petelin and the NASA astronaut Frank Rubio. They will thus conclude a 371-day mission, a new record for a continuous mission for an American.
Record time in space for the US astronaut
Initially planned to last 6 months, the space mission of Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio was extended by another 6 months due to the accident that occurred to the Soyuz Ms-22, which had suffered damage to the cooling system and which for this reason had been returned to Earth without a crew. The three therefore waited to return with a new capsule, the Soyuz Ms-23, extending the time of their mission. Following this setback, Rubio surpassed the previous record for continuous stay in space for an American, previously held by Mark Vande Hei with 355 days.
Source-tg24.sky.it