NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei Returns to Houston After 355 Days in Space

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei returns to Earth after 355 days at the International Space Station.

Vande Hei also set a new record for the longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut. The NASA astronaut lived in the space station for 355 consecutive days.

The astronaut landed in Kazakhstan on March 30 and was transported by NASA to Houston Texas at NASA's Johnson Space Center on Thursday.

Russia's spacecraft, the Soyuz rocket, transported Vande Hei and two other Russian cosmonauts, Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov to Earth on Wednesday.

The astronauts were taken to a medical tent after arriving in Kazakhstan and then flown by helicopter to Karaganda, the capital of the country's southwestern region.

Vande Hei was flown to Houston, Texas in a NASA jet from that point on. The record-breaker will have more time to recover, in accordance with NASA procedures, now that he has returned home after a mission that lasted nearly a year.

NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei

NASA's Johnson Space Center took to Twitter to welcome and congratulate the arrival of Mark Vande Hei.

Mark Vande Hei is home!

@Astro_Sabot returned back to Houston this morning, with his loved ones and fellow @NASA_Astronauts there to greet him. He landed back on Earth yesterday after spending 355 days orbiting the Earth.

NASA also tweeted, "He contributed to hundreds of science experiments that benefit life on Earth and will help shape future deep space missions". US Vice President Kamala Harris also replied to the post and congratulated Vande Hei.

As reported by Space.com, the previous title holder for the longest spaceflight was U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly with his 340-day stay in the International Space Station from 2015 to 2016; Vande Hei breaks that record by spending 355 days in the ISS.

However, Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who spent nearly 438 continuous days on the Soviet-Russian Mir space station between 1994 and 1995, holds the record for the longest single spaceflight of nearly 438 continuous days.

NASA and Roscosmos: U.S. Sanctions

NASA and Roscosmos were reportedly caught in the middle of a strained working relationship due to the U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia by U.S. President Joe Biden.

President Biden imposed a plethora of sanctions on Russia after it declared a specialized military operation in Ukraine. As a retaliation for the heated geopolitical conflict, Roscosmos Director-General Dmitry Rogozin also threatened to put Russia's space relations with the U.S. to an end.

Roscosmos's Rogozin also threatened the U.S. to leave Mark Vande Hei in the ISS since the scheduled return to Earth was with two other Russian cosmonauts in the Russian rocket Soyuz.

Numerous people were enraged with the statement of the Director-General of Roscosmos.

However, NASA later clarified that despite the ongoing turmoil in Eastern Europe, Mark Vande Hei will be coming home aboard the Soyuz. The relationship between NASA and Roscosmos remains the same.