Record-breaking NASA astronaut, Mark T Vande Hei to return to Earth on Russian vessel

Mark T. Vande Hei, the American astronaut who created the record most time spent in space will be brought back by a Russian vessel.

Mark T. Vande Hei, the American astronaut who created the record most time spent in space will be brought back by a Russian vessel. He spent a total of 341 days in space most than any American astronaut, before him  Scott Kelly set a record for the longest time in space, spending 340 consecutive days aboard the ISS so that NASA could study his health and compare it to that of his Earth-bound twin brother.

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whereas Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov spent 437 days on the Mir space station from 1994 and 1995 still holds the record for the longest time a person has stayed in space. His combined space experience is more than 22 months, greater than any person alive.

Due to the intense issue of Ukraine and international sanctions, it was originally thought that Russia will retaliate using Roscosmos, but NASA’s Russian counterpart complied without hesitations taking in mind the international space laws which were unexpected as  Kremlin was not very happy over the sanctions by NATO allies but honoured the Outer Space Treaty that was signed in the Soviet era. Roscosmos has several astonishing achievements as has been a competent rival of the prestigious American space agency.

The program manager at ISS, Mr Montalbano said “All these have continued for 20 years and nothing has changed in the last three weeks. Our control centres operate successfully, flawlessly, seamlessly,” BBC reported.

UNOOSA was formed in 1958 and the International Space treaty was signed on 27th January 1967. In 1967, when the Outer Space Treaty was signed, the Cold War was in full swing. Both the US and the Soviet Union wanted to prevent the expansion of the nuclear arms race into a completely new territory i.e. space.