NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei breaks record for longest US spaceflight

Space.com

3 years ago

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei breaks record for longest US spaceflight_6230978b33f11.jpeg

When NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei launched into space 11 months ago, he did not know how long he would be off the planet, let alone that he would be up there long enough to set any records.

But when the clock strikes 12:24 p.m. EDT (1624 GMT) today (March 15), Vande Hei will claim the title of the U.S. astronaut with the single longest spaceflight in history. At a mission elapsed time of 340 days, 8 hours and 42 minutes, Vande Hei will surpass the duration logged by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly on March 2, 2013.

From Tuesday afternoon forward, until his scheduled ride home on March 30, Vande Hei’s record will continue to grow. His stay aboard the International Space Station is expected to wrap just short of a full year at 355 days.

“I didn’t know with certainty that the flight would be this long when I launched, but I certainly knew that it was a possibility,” Vande Hei said in an interview with CBS News in January. “I felt like it was an opportunity to fill a need that we had, and I was very happy to be able to fill it.”

Graphic outlining the history of NASA astronauts on extended stays on board the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA)

Vande Hei arrived at the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on April 9, 2021, knowing at the time that he would be there for at least for the five to six months that is typical today for expedition crew members. His mission was extended by NASA in September to allow for a Russian movie crew to visit the orbiting complex and, more importantly, protect against a crew rotation schedule that could leave the station without any Americans on board.

“I am in space to make sure that we had a continuous U.S. presence on the space station,” Vande Hei told ABC News. “Crews didn’t overlap most recently and I was the only [American] on the space station for about a week because of that.”

Vande Hei’s additional time in space also gave NASA an opportunity to learn more about how astronauts adapt to life in microgravity for longer periods of time. Kelly’s 340 days had been carried out for just that reason, as the space agency began looking at how to send astronauts on missions into deep space, back to the moon and eventually to Mars.

“I came back from my [first] flight feeling like spaceflight is a really big sacrifice,” Vande Hei said, referring to his 168-day stay on the space station in 2018. “It was hard. I think psychologically, I was just kind of beating myself up every time I made mistakes.”

“This time around, I’m in a better spot. I think I’m really paying attention to the inner voice, trying to tell myself, ‘you know what, you got this,’ and when you make little mistakes, just kind of laugh it off,” he said. “It’s been really pleasant. It’s been really a lot of amazing experiences.”

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, as seen in February 2021 holding the tools for an archeology study aboard the space station. (Image credit: NASA)

Vande Hei also took up meditation, which helped, especially given where he chose to practice it aboard the space station.

“I decided to start doing it in front of our biggest window, the Cupola. So every morning, before everyone else is awake and with all the lights off, I can sit and look for 20 minutes at the stars,” he told CBS News. “I feel very, very fortunate to have those experiences.”

Vande Hei is not the only member of the station’s Expedition 66 crew to reach his 340th day in space on Tuesday: Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov has been on board just as long. Unlike the Americans, though, Russians have logged even longer space missions. Three cosmonauts — Musa Manarov, Vladimir Titov and Valery Polyakov — have topped Vande Hei’s U.S. record.