Cover Official astronaut portrait of Expedition 51/52 crew member Mark Vande Hei in an EMU. (Photo: Bill Stafford and Robert Markowitz)
Official astronaut portrait of Expedition 51/52 crew member Mark Vande Hei in an EMU. (Photo: Bill Stafford and Robert Markowitz)
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On March 30, astronaut Mark Vande Hei set a new NASA record for longest stay in space, surpassing Scott Kelly's 340-day expedition
In 2013, Christine Koch was selected by NASA to become an astronaut and journey to the International Space Station (ISS). Koch reached the 328-day milestone and held the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman.
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Scott Kelly, surpassed this record in 2015 when he boarded the Soyuz TMA-16M as part of a mission and spent a total of 340 days in space, setting the record for the longest spaceflight by an American astronaut.
On March 30, that changed as NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei returned to earth.
Photo Date: 11-7-2018Location: Bldg 8 Photo StudioSubject: Astronaut Christina Koch Official EMU PortraitPhotographer: Bill Stafford
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Vande Hei has a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Saint John's University and a Master of Science in Applied Physics from Stanford University. He also served as a combat engineer after he was commissioned in the US Army through the ROTC program in 1989. After serving in the field, Vande Hei taught in the classroom at the United States Military Academy in West Point as a Professor of Physics.
He began working on the cosmos up close after he was selected by NASA in 2009.
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Astronaut candidate Mark Vande Hei checks his parachute gear during a four-day water survival training school for the 2009 class of NASA astronaut candidates at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. Assisting him is Victor Mower, USN instructor. (Photo: Blair / Nasa)
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Vande Hei docked to the orbiting lab at the ISS on April 9, 2021. He arrived at the station alongside flight engineer Pyotr Dubrov and Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy.
Although Novitskiy left and flew back to earth in October of last year with spaceflight participants Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko, Dubrov remained aboard the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship with Vande Hei.
Above Expedition 64 backup crew members Mark Vande Hei of NASA and Oleg Novitskiy and Petr Dubrov of Roscosmos pose for crew portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia. (Photo: NASA)
Expedition 64 backup crew members Mark Vande Hei of NASA and Oleg Novitskiy and Petr Dubrov of Roscosmos pose for crew portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia. (Photo: NASA)
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On March 15, the American astronaut has trumped both Koch's and Kelly's records.
And on the evening of March 30 (PST), the astronaut, along with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Dubrov, landed on a grassland in Kazakhstan in a Russian spacecraft, the Soyuz, where they were warmly welcomed by the team on standby.
Vande Hei's return has made him the new NASA record holder for the longest stay in space with a total of 355 consecutive days in Earth orbit.
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Christine Andas is a features writer and the style lead of Tatler Philippines. She mostly covers style-related content but enjoys writing about space, sneakers, and her favourite stars. She acquired a master's degree in Creative Writing at the University of Santo Tomas and has written young adult short stories which can be read online.
