Two Russian cosmonauts, who spent over 370 days in orbit, traveled back along with a NASA astronaut on a Russia Soyuz spacecraft
Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, two Russian cosmonauts who set a new record in terms of time spent on the International Space Station, safely landed in Kazakhstan, along with their colleague, NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio, Roscosmos has announced.
According to Russia’s space agency, the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft carrying the three men touched down at 2:17pm Moscow time on Wednesday, with its journey having proceeded without incident.
The statement pointed out that Prokopyev and Petelin spent more than 370 days in orbit, making theirs the longest ISS mission to date. The only people who outdid their feat were two pairs of their colleagues who crewed the now-defunct Soviet/Russian Mir space station in 1994-1995 and 1998-1999, respectively, Roscosmos added.
Prokopyev, who has two voyages under his belt, has chalked up 567 days, 15 hours, and 12 minutes spent in orbit, while this was Petelin’s maiden flight.
They ventured outside the station six times during their stay aboard the ISS. On top of that, the Russian cosmonauts conducted a series of scientific experiments and received four cargo spacecraft.