Tell the world that I’m coming home

Later today, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio is scheduled to return from the International Space Station and set foot on planet Earth for the first time in 371 days – a record for the longest time an American has ever spent in space.

But this record achievement was purely accidental – much like when Isaac Newton discovered gravity.

Rubio, along with two Russians, was launched into space by a Russian spacecraft in Kazakhstan last September for a six-month tour on the ISS.

But, like the best-laid plans of mice and men, that all changed when a coolant leak was discovered in the Russian spacecraft – which was also supposed to transport the astronauts home. A different spacecraft was sent to the space station, forcing a delay in the return trip.

🌌🤔 Zoom out: What actually happens to the human body in space?... Similar to “sooo – what are we?”, this is a very loaded question.

Human bodies have become accustomed to gravity over the years, so the absence of it has an effect on almost every bodily function. But, in the grand scheme of things, we really don’t know much about how long periods in low-gravity affect humans.

• The world record for the longest spaceflight is (only) 437 days, or a little over a year. For context, the trip to Mars takes ~7 months, so traveling there and back would almost exactly match the time in space of the human who’s been in space the longest.