Born on December 11, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, but with Salvadoran blood, the astronaut of the NASAFrank Rubio, can not return to Earth and his story is inspiring.
46-year-old Rubio has been on the International Space Station (ISS) since September 21, 2022 and his mission is to study the flammability of materials in microgravity, the technology demonstration for small repair satellites robotics and the capture of images of the Earth requested by the students.
In addition, the astronaut is part of the investigation of the creation of organs outside the planet. But Rubio has had to face a bigger setback: he arrived on the ISS along with Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin, all three aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft, which suffered a coolant leak from the impact of a micrometeorite, leaving them stranded.
In an interview with Univision, cited in AMspoke of the problems of the Soyuz, 400 kilometers from Earth, in a relaxed tone and sometimes about to float due to the effect of gravity. He said that he felt good after almost half a year in space, a period that will double precisely because of the problems with the spacecraft..
“Our ship was damaged”
Frank Rubio, on his way to becoming the first space traveler of Hispanic origin to spend a year away from Earth, recounted: “If I return sooner (to Earth) I will be happy to be with my family, but I can stay three to six more months on the ISS due to technical problems”.
“Our ship was damaged”Rubio said, referring to the refrigerant leak in the Soyuz capsule that does not allow the astronauts to be brought back to Earth, a problem that, as he pointed out, seems to be in the process of being solved, although he did not give more details.
It was expected, after some reports, that Rubio would return to Earth with the Crew-5 mission. The Endurance crew had temporarily upgraded their voyage to transport the astronaut in the event of an ISS emergency evacuation after Roscomos determined that MS-22 could only safely carry two people.
Crew-5 later removed those mods after they Russia will announce the dispatch of a replacement Soyuz spacecraft to bring Rubio and cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petelin back to Earth.
“My family has always supported me and is very positive”, Frank Rubio said for the extension of his stay in space, which will surely be worth it in scientific matters.
