Two Russians, American land back on Earth after ISS mission

The three men had travelled on a Russian Soyuz to the ISS last year, in a mission that was meant to last only six months.

Frank Rubio is helped from the capsule on Wednesday. Picture: NASA via AFP

Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut landed back on Earth on Wednesday after spending a year at the International Space Station .

“Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio, who spent a year on board the ISS, landed near the city of Jezkazgan in Kazakhstan,” Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

It said the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft carrying them reached Earth in a landing that took place in “normal mode”. Roscosmos said Prokopyev and Petelin spent “370 days, 21 hours and 22 minutes in space – the longest flight under the ISS program.”

NASA also confirmed the landing. “Frank Rubio is back on Earth after 371 days,” it said on X.

“The single longest spaceflight for any of our NASA astronauts comes to a close.”

The three men had travelled on a Russian Soyuz to the ISS last year, in a mission that was meant to last only six months but the Soyuz suffered a leak, probably because of an impact from a tiny meteorite, so Moscow sent another rocket with no crew onboard.

The Russians and American then carried out the mission of the crew due to replace them.

The trio spent a year on the ISS – a rare venue for co-operation between the US and Russia — as tensions between Washington and Moscow intensified over the conflict in Ukraine.

AFP