Recently, two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, stranded in space finally returned to earth.
A time set for 8 days was adjusted several times, dragging on to 286 days in space, and completing 4,576 orbits around Earth.
While people praise their survival technique, it brings to mind how we all are survivors.
“Their SpaceX capsule made a fast and fiery re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere, before four parachutes opened to take them to a gentle splashdown off the coast of Florida,” NASA said.
Longest Time In Space
But is this the longest time a human has stayed in space?
Let’s take a look at the longest time a human has stayed in space.
In 1994 Valeri Polyakov landed in space and did not return until he had clocked 437 days, 18 hours.
Valeri Polyakov is a Russian cosmonaut, on the Mir space station from 1994 to 1995.
This is the longest record of time a human has stayed in space. However, there are others that stayed longer than the latest ‘astronauts return’.
Other Long Space Missions
Sergei Avdeyev (Russia) – 379 days (1998–1999)
Mark Vande Hei (USA) – 355 days (2021–2022, longest by an American)
Frank Rubio (USA) – 371 days (2022–2023, longest NASA mission)
You see, most astronauts stay in space for about 6 months on the International Space Station (ISS) before returning to Earth.
Now, an eight-day mission turned to months of expectation and the world is relishing their moments in space because video is now the language of the internet.
In fact, Williams was having fun as shown in this video.
