An astronaut who has broken the U.S. record for the longest consecutive time spent in space will return on Wednesday, concluding nearly a year on the International Space Station.
Despite the war between Russia and Ukraine continuing to foment, NASA's Mark Vande Hei will ride back on a Russian space agency spacecraft with two cosmonauts, Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, touching down in Kazakhstan.
The optics of such a flight will either demonstrate the continued peaceful collaboration in space between the United States and Russia, or make for one truly awkward trip home. NASA administrator Bill Nelson recently said he expected Vande Hei's flight to happen "without a hitch."
"The professional relationship between the astronauts and cosmonauts on board the station, as well as the professional relationship between mission control in both Houston and Moscow, continues unaltered," Nelson said on a call with reporters on March 23.
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That professionalism runs counter to the publicity stunts pulled by Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. Earlier this month, Rogozin tweeted a bizarre video portraying the cosmonauts seemingly leaving Vande Hei behind (though Vande Hei wouldn't have been left alone on the space station). On another recent occasion, Rogozin tweeted a video showing workers covering U.S. and other nations' flags on a Russian rocket.
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Politics and online trolling aside, NASA assures Vande Hei will return home safely. To watch the astronaut's departure from the space station live, head over to NASA TV on the agency's website starting at 11:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Coverage of the landing of the Soyuz spacecraft is expected to begin at 6:15 a.m. ET on Wednesday, March 30.
In a NASA video, Vande Hei said the experience of breaking the record of most consecutive days in space gave him an epiphany that he wants to spend more time outside in nature on Earth. His favorite experiment in the orbiting lab involved growing chili peppers because he enjoyed lifting the lid to smell the fragrant fresh vegetation — and eating it.
"I've had an indoor job 24/7 for almost a year, so I'm looking forward to being outside, no matter what kind of weather."
"I've had an indoor job 24/7 for almost a year, so I'm looking forward to being outside, no matter what kind of weather," he said.
When their expedition concludes, Vande Hei and Dubrov will have spent 355 days at the space station and circled Earth 5,680 times. The Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov still owns the record for most consecutive time spent in space, at almost 438 consecutive days. Yet Vande Hei's duration breaks U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly's record of 340 consecutive days in space. All told, the soon-to-be spaceship-lagged Vande Hei will have lived 523 days in space.
Kelly has recently attracted attention for his Twitter spats with Rogozin, calling him out for his threatening remarks about deorbiting the space station, crashing it into populated places on Earth, and leaving an American stranded in space.
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"Dimon," Kelly tweeted in Russian, using the diminutive for Dmitry, "without those flags and the foreign exchange they bring in, your space program won't be worth a damn. Maybe you can find a job at McDonald's if McDonald's still exists in Russia."
Kelly has since ended his Twitter quarrel with Rogozin, citing his respect for NASA and commitment to international cooperation in space.
After landing this week, Vande Hei and the cosmonauts will split up, which is a standard crew practice, not a sign of more geopolitical tension. The astronaut will return to his home in Houston, and the Russian spacefarers will fly back to their training base in Star City, Russia.
