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Frank Rubio
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NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, wearing gloves, tends to tomato plants growing under pink LED lights inside the equipment-filled International Space Station laboratory.
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In full:
Francisco Carlos Rubio
Born:
December 12, 1976, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, wearing gloves, tends to tomato plants growing under pink LED lights inside the equipment-filled International Space Station laboratory.
Frank Rubio on the International Space Station NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 flight engineer Frank Rubio checking tomato plants growing inside the International Space Station for the XROOTS space botany study, October 2022. Rubio was in space for more than 370 days, the longest single spaceflight by an American.

Frank Rubio

American astronaut
Also known as: Francisco Carlos Rubio
Written by
Erik Gregersen
Erik Gregersen is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. Before joining Britannica in 2007, he worked at the University of Chicago Press on the...
Erik Gregersen
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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•History

News •

Pupils who designed a badge sent to space meet NASA astronaut • Oct. 21, 2026, 3:39 PM ET (BBC)

Frank Rubio (born December 12, 1976, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) is an astronaut who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American, having been in space for more than 370 days. He will also be a mission specialist on the Artemis III mission, which will launch in 2027.

Rubio attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he was a member of the Black Knights parachute team. He received a bachelor’s degree in international relations in 1998. Rubio served as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army and flew missions in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Having originally wanted to be a doctor, he earned his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2010. He became a surgeon with the 10th Special Forces Group.

Rubio was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017. In 2020 he was chosen for a group of 18 astronauts eligible to fly Artemis program missions, which are to return American astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972. On the Artemis IV mission, scheduled for 2028, two astronauts are to land on the lunar surface. Those astronauts are to spend almost a week in the Moon’s south polar region.

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Rubio first went into space on Soyuz MS-22, which launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on September 21, 2022. He was originally scheduled to spend about six months in space, but on December 14, Soyuz MS-22 developed a coolant leak, which meant that temperatures in the spacecraft would be too high for the astronauts during reentry. The Russian space agency, Roskosmos, decided to launch Soyuz MS-23 empty in February 2023 and move the crew of that mission to the next Soyuz in September 2023. Soyuz MS-22 returned to Earth with cargo in it. To keep the ISS at a full complement, Rubio and the two Soyuz MS-22 cosmonauts had to remain in space for an additional six months.

While on the station, Rubio performed three spacewalks and conducted many scientific experiments, including growing tomatoes hydroponically and 3D-printing knee cartilage. Rubio returned to Earth on September 27, 2023, on Soyuz MS-23, having spent more than 370 days in space, the longest single spaceflight by an American, surpassing the previous record of 355 days set by Mark Vande Hei in March 2022.

In June 2026, NASA announced that Rubio would be a mission specialist on Artemis III, which will test the lunar landers built by Blue Origin and SpaceX in Earth orbit.

Erik Gregersen