His spacecraft sprung a leak. Then this NASA astronaut accidentally broke a record

Frank Rubio is helped out of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft just minutes after he and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin landed in a remote area of Kazakhstan on Sept. 27, 2023. (Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images)

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio holds the record for the longest U.S. space flight, but he wasn't trying to earn that title.

In September 2022, Rubio was deployed to the International Space Station along with two Russian cosmonauts. It was supposed to be a six month mission, but their original ride sprung a coolant leak while docked to the station. That 180-day mission turned into a 371-day stay.