St. John’s University Graduate Astronaut to Set Single Space Flight Record

(KNSI) – A St. John’s University graduate is poised to set a new record for longest single space flight.

Mark Vande Hei, who graduated from SJU in 1989, is on board the International Space Station right now and recently received word his stay, which began in April of 2021, will come to an end in March of 2022. That puts Vande Hei in space for 353 days, beating the old record of 340 days set by astronaut Mark Kelly.

He says astronauts are explorers at heart, and to have the opportunity to contribute to furthering exploration is a “great opportunity.” Both he and his family have been braced for the extended stay and said that it was expected. “Honestly,” he says, “it’s got a sense of novelty to it. For me, it’s a new experience. And I’m looking forward to as a human being, understanding how it feels to do something like this.”

Vande Hei says there is a psychological element to being in space and away from Earth and his family for so long. He says he meditates and keeps in regular contact with his wife and children.

Part of Vande Hei’s mission on board the ISS is research into long haul space flight to prepare for a human mission to Mars. “So what we’re doing, in effect is practicing, keeping people healthy on a long trip through space, where people don’t have the force of the Earth’s surface, resisting us from being in this freefall. So, we’re practicing for missions like that right now. The big difference is when we get our first folks to Mars, we’re not going to have a staff of nurses and doctors there to make sure we’re healthy and take care of us. No one’s going to be there to help us, extract us out of the spacecraft. We’ve got to make sure that astronauts are healthy enough to take care of all those things on their own when they’re very far away from Mother Earth.”

So, how does it feel to hold such a unique record? He says it’s not a record he would attribute to just himself. He says it’s a record for the space program, and he expects his own record will be broken some day as humans further space exploration, adding that “being able to contribute to that is something I will always be very, very proud of.”

Find the NASA Johnson YouTube page by clicking here.

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