Despite holding the title for the longest stint in space by a NASA astronaut, Frank Rubio would have rather not spent all that extra time in low Earth orbit and away from his family. In a recent interview, the astronaut revealed that he would have likely turned down the mission had he known it would extend over a year instead of the planned six months.
“If they had asked me up front before training, because you do train for a year or two years for your mission, I probably would have declined,” Rubio told reporters on Tuesday during a live broadcast from the International Space Station (ISS). “It would have hurt, but I would have declined.”
Rubio launched to the ISS on September 21, 2022 on board a Russian Soyuz crew capsule. In December 2022, the spacecraft that transported Rubio, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, began leaking coolant into low Earth orbit while attached to the ISS. As a result, the spacecraft was deemed unfit to fly the trio back to Earth.
Rubio’s mission was extended from a six-month stay on board the space station to a little over a year. The NASA astronaut is set to return to Earth on September 27, logging in 371 days in Earth orbit and becoming the first U.S. astronaut, and one of only six people, to spend a year in space. On September 11, Rubio beat the previous record of 355 days set by Mark Vande Hei in 2022.
It’s certainly a great achievement, but one the astronaut would not have willingly signed up for. “That’s only because of family things that were going on this past year,” he told reporters. “Had I known that I had to miss those very important events, I just would have had to say ‘thank you, but no thank you.’”
Although he wasn’t prepared to spend over a year on board the ISS, Rubio recognizes that personal sacrifices must be made in order to keep the space station operational for the past 23 years. “We have to get the mission done,” he said.
It’s a rare insight into the mindset of astronauts who have to spend months away from home. “When it finally became real that it was gonna require me to stay for a full year … it was difficult,” Rubio said. The mission also marked Rubio’s first time in space.
If all goes well, Rubio will board a Soyuz MS-23 in a week’s time and return back to the surface of his home planet. “Hugging my wife and kids is going to be paramount and I’ll probably focus on that for the first couple days,” Rubio said, discussing what he anticipates upon returning to Earth. “I think just going out in the yard and enjoying the trees and the silence. Up here, we kind of have the constant hum of machinery…so I’m looking forward to just being outside and enjoying the peace and quiet.”