NASA astronaut Frank Rubio reflects on his record-breaking 371 days aboard the International Space Station. HWHAP Episode 349.
Houston, we have a podcast.
Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space center, episode 349 surpassing a year in space.
I'm Courtney Beasley, and I'll be your host today on this podcast, we bring you the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight and more.
On this episode, we're chatting with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who launched on his first space flight September 21, 2022, aboard a russian Soyuz spacecraft with cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petellin.
After spending an american record breaking 371 days in space, Rubio and his crewmates made a safe parachute assisted landing September 27, 2023.
Rubio's spaceflight is the longest single spaceflight by a us astronaut, breaking the record previously held at 355 days by NASA astronaut Mark Vandehej.
During his mission, Rubio completed approximately 5936 orbits in a journey of more than 157 million mile, which is roughly the equivalent of 300 2028 trips to the moon and back.
He witnessed the arrival of 15 visiting spacecraft and the departure of 14 visiting spacecraft representing crewed and uncrewed cargo missions.
During his record breaking mission, Rubio spent many hours on scientific activities aboard the space station, conducting a variety of tasks ranging from plant research to physical sciences studies.
Prior to joining NASA, the Florida native graduated from the US Military Academy in 1998 and earned a doctorate of medicine from uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 2010.
And before attending medical school, he served as a UH 60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot and flew more than 1100 hours, including more than 600 hours of combat and imminent danger time, during deployments to Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Rubio is a board certified family physician and flight surgeon.
At the time of his selection, he was serving in the 10th Special Forces Group in Fort Carson, Colorado.
And here to tell us more about his mission is NASA astronaut Frank Rubio.
Houston, we have a podcast.
Frank, thank you so much for coming on.
Houston, we have a podcast today.
Hey, Courtney.
Good morning.
Thank you so much for having me.