As a result of a leaking Russian spacecraft in mid-December 2022, three astronauts must be willing to live longer in space. They are a NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, and two Roscosmos cosmonauts, namely Sergey Prokopyec and Dimitry Petelin.
The three space explorers arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on September 21, 2021. As quoted from Space, Monday (23/1/2023), those who are supposed to return home in March must be willing to live away from their homes for up to a year on the ISS. .
"The plan is for Frank, Dimitri and Sergey to remain on board for a few more months until they return home, probably (at) the end of September," said Dina Contella, NASA's ISS Operations Integration Manager in a statement.
The three men failed to leave in time because their vehicle lost all of its coolant after a micrometeoroid strike that leaked the Russian spacecraft and created a precarious situation on board.
Frank, Dimitri and Sergey had to wait for a replacement vehicle to arrive at the ISS. It took a long time to prepare and launch them there, so the three of them stayed longer in space.
"We're looking at the right time for that, but at this point, that's when the vehicle is planned to come home," said Contella.
With the schedule change, the MS-22 crew will be on duty in a vacuum dwelling for a full year from their departure into space.
Even so, neither Frank, Dimitri, nor Sergey were the longest-lived astronauts or cosmonauts in space.
Because, the record is still held by Mark Vande Hei who stayed for 355 days between April 2021 to April 2022. Then, there is also Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Korneinko who recorded themselves for 340 days in space between March 2015 to March 2016.
Additionally, Christina Koch holds the record as the longest female astronaut in space, where she lived circling the Earth for 329 days from April 2019 to February 2020.
