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STORY: This is the moment a Soyuz MS-23 capsule carrying NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two Russian cosmonauts returned to Earth.

They spent 371 days in space, with Rubio setting a new record for the longest continuous spaceflight by an American.

The mission - Rubio's first space voyage - launched in September 2022.

His mission aboard the International Space Station included testing space gardening, trying out a nutrient-rich space diet, and even 3D-printing knee cartilage.

His return - together with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin - comes six months late,

because their original spacecraft sprang a leak so a replacement had to be sent up to get them back.

On September 11, 2023, Rubio broke the previous NASA record

of 355 consecutive days in space, set by now-retired U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei.

But Rubio is far from the world record held by Russian Valeri Polyakov.

He made the longest space journey ever - 437 consecutive days and 18 hours - between January 1994 and March 1995.