NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei Breaks American Record for Longest Spaceflight – People

According to CNET, as of March 15, ET,NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei has spent more time in space than any other American astronaut.Vande Hei is part of Expedition 65 on the International Space Station, which is orbiting Earth at 17,000 miles per hour. The retired Army colonel headed to the space station in April 2021 for a six-month stay.

In September, NASA announced that Vande Hei would be staying for an additional six months, noting that it would provide an opportunity to observe how the body adapts to long-term microgravity conditions.

“I think all astronauts are explorers at heart, and the opportunity to contribute to further exploration is a great opportunity,” Vande Hei said when he announced last September that he would remain on the ISS.

The American spaceflight record is now 340.5 days — but Vande Hei will end up spending 355 days in space, as he isn’t expected to return to Earth until March 30. That puts him well ahead of Scott Kelly’s record of 340 days in 2016 and Christina Koch’s record for longest spaceflight by a woman in 2019 (328 days). (It also means that Vande Hei has completed about 5,440 Earth-orbiting flights to date, and will complete about 5,680 total miles.)

It’s 10 days away from spending a full year in space, which puts Vande Hei fourth on the all-time list of human spaceflights, well behind Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, whose Mir aboard the International Space Station 437 days were spent on the space station. Three other Russian cosmonauts occupy second and third place on the overall list, and Vande Hei will share his record with Pyotr Dubrov, who lifts off aboard the Soyuz in April 2021.

Vande Hei will return to Earth in a Soyuz capsule with Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov. The capsule will land in Kazakhstan. As usual, NASA staff will stand by before landing to assess Vande Hei’s medical condition and fly him back to the United States on a NASA plane.

The record comes during an uncertain time for the International Space Station, as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict threatens to jeopardize U.S.-Russian space cooperation. Despite an escalating Twitter “war of words” between Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin and Scott Kelly as the former floats the idea of ​​dropping the International Space Station from orbit in response to mounting sanctions on Russia, NASA remains Firmly maintain good relations with Roscosmos.

On a Feb. 28 news conference call, Kathy Lueders, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, noted, “We have received no indication at the working level that our peers are not committed to the continued operation of the International Space Station.”

A Soyuz rocket is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 18, carrying three Russian cosmonauts into space. The three astronauts are Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov.