NASA astronaut, two Russian cosmonauts return to Earth after US-record year in space

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two Russian cosmonauts undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth early September 27, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out an unexpected yearlong stay in space, the longest single flight in US space history.

With Soyuz MS-69/23S commander Sergey Prokopyev monitoring cockpit displays, flanked on the left by co-pilot Dmitri Petelin and on the right by NASA flight engineer Frank Rubio, the Russian ferry ship undocked from the space station's multi-port Prichal module at 3:54:30 a.m. EDT, according to CBS News.

After backing a safe distance away from the lab complex and waiting to reach the precise point in space to begin the descent, the spacecraft fired its braking rockets for four minutes and 39 seconds starting at 6:24 a.m., slowing the ship's 17,100-mph velocity by about 286 mph.

That was just enough to drop the far side of the orbit deep into the atmosphere, putting the ship on course for the targeted landing site.

After separating from the upper orbital compartment and lower propulsion and power module, the central crew compartment, the only one protected by a heat shield, hit the top of the discernible atmosphere, 62 miles up, at 6:55 a.m. and landed near the town of Dzhezkazgan at 7:17 a.m. (5:17 p.m. local time).

"Everybody did really well," Rubio said. "It's good to be home."

Unofficial mission duration: 370 days, 21 hours and 22 minutes in a voyage spanning 5,936 orbits and 157 million miles.