NASA astronaut candidate Francisco Rubio waves as he is introduced as one of 12 new astronaut candidates, Wednesday, June 7, 2017, during an event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. (U.S. Army)
The reality facing American astronaut and Army Lt. Col. Frank Rubio dawned on him slowly, he said, as a tangle of unexpected hiccups unfolded hundreds of miles above Earth on the International Space Station.
First, a Soyuz capsule — the Russian spacecraft that had brought Rubio to the ISS last September — sprung a coolant leak in mid-December, jeopardizing his ride home.
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