United States (US) astronaut Mark Vande Hei managed to enter the record on Tuesday (15/3). This NASA crew broke the record for the longest stay in space.
Vande Hei arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on April 9, 2021, and is expected to return to Earth on March 30, 2022, after spending 355 days in low-Earth orbit. This duration broke the previous record, held by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, by 15 days.
Tensions between Russia and the US as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian war, had made NASA worried that its astronauts would be left in space. But the relationship between the US-Russian crew on the ISS does not appear to have been affected by the war situation.
Although the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos had provoked that they would leave NASA astronauts alone on the ISS, the Russian cosmonauts remained professional and ensured that Vande Hei would return home on the Soyuz spacecraft as scheduled, along with cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov.
Quoted from Scitech Daily, Thursday (17/3/2022) while in space, Vande Hei contributed to dozens of studies executed during his mission, including six science investigations supported by NASA's Human Research Program.
"Our astronauts are extraordinary explorers who help expand our knowledge of how humans can live and work in space for longer periods of time," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
"Mark's record-breaking mission and contribution to science paved the way for more people to travel into space on longer-duration missions as the agency pushes the boundaries of exploration to the Moon and Mars. Thanks for your service Mark, and congratulations."
Various studies conducted by Vande Hei, among others, help grow and evaluate vegetables harvested in space. This research seeks to develop food production systems that can help astronauts meet their food needs in space.
Vande Hei also collects blood and saliva samples of crew members during missions to investigate changes in various hormones, proteins, and cells that will reveal how the immune system might change in space.
In addition, he contributed to a separate investigation that collected biological samples from crew on the ISS and placed them in storage banks. Researchers can take samples to study human physiological changes caused by spaceflight.
Vande Hei's contribution will expand NASA's knowledge of how the human body adapts to long-range spaceflight as they plan for future missions to the Moon and Mars.