CNN —Record-breaking NASA astronaut Frank Rubio has finally returned to Earth, feeling the pull of the planet’s gravity for the first time in more than a year. The crew’s arrival marked the end of a long — and unexpected — journey for Rubio, who had been slated to spend only six months aboard the International Space Station. Rubio bested the previous record for the longest stay in space by a US astronaut — 355 days — which was set by NASA’s Mark Vande Hei in 2022. A view shows the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft (on left) that carried Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio back to Earth. Space station crew rotationThe Soyuz MS-24 vehicle was finally ready this month and carried NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub to the space station on September 15, paving the way for Rubio’s return on Wednesday.

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Persons: Frank Rubio, Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin —, Dmitry Petelin, Konstantin Borisov, Reuters Rubio’s, “, ”, ’ ” Rubio, —, NASA’s Mark Vande Hei, Valeri Polyakov, Prokopyev, Petelin, Roscosmos, couldn’t, Loral O’Hara, Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai, Rubio’s Organizations: CNN, NASA, Russian Soyuz, Space, Soyuz, Reuters, Houston, Roscosmos Locations: Kazakhstan, Russian, Dzhezkazgan, Ukraine, United States, Russia