Stuck in space: three astronauts return to Earth after their return capsule had a coolant leak

Three astronauts returned to Earth on Wednesday after being stuck in space for just over a year.

The Nasa astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts landed in a remote area of Kazakhstan after descending in a Soyuz capsule created as a replacement after their original spacecraft was hit by space junk and lost all its coolant while docked to the International Space Station.

Their 180-day mission turned into a 371 stay in space where American Frank Rubio ended up setting the record for the longest US spaceflight - because of the stay.

He has now spent more than two weeks longer in space than Mark Vande Hei, who held Nasa’s previous endurance record for a single spaceflight.

Russia holds the world record of 437 days, set in the mid-1990s.

The replacement Soyuz capsule that brought back Rubio and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin was launched in February.

Russian engineers said they think a piece of space junk must have pierced the radiator of their original capsule late last year, midway through what should have been a six-month mission.

Without the cooling, the capsules electronics and any occupants could overheat to dangerous levels, so the craft returned empty.

However, the next Soyuz launch was this month.

“No one deserves to go home to their families more than you,” the space station’s new commander, Denmark’s Andreas Mogensen, said earlier this week.

Prokopyev told ground controllers throughout the descent that all three were feeling good but they experienced more than four times the force of gravity. Their capsule streaked through the atmosphere and came to a touchdown on its side. Helicopters moved in with recovery crews to collect the astronauts.

“It’s good to be home,” Rubio said after being pulled from the capsule.

Rubio, 47, an army doctor and helicopter pilot, said at a news conference last week that he never would have agreed to a full year in space if asked at the outset as he ended up missing important family milestones.

He also said the psychological aspect of spending so long in space was tougher than he expected and may hold on to this record for a while asNasa has no plans as of now for more year-long missions.

It was the first spaceflight for Rubio and Petelin, 40, an engineer. Prokopyev, 48, an engineer and pilot, has now pulled two long station stints.

They logged 157m miles (253m km) since launching from Kazakhstan last September and circled the world nearly 6,000 times.