SOYUZ MS-22 – COMPLETE CREW-SIGNED 6 x 4" LITHOGRAPH

Sergey Prokopyev • Dmitri Petelin • Frank Rubio

From a Record-Breaking ISS Mission to Artemis III

An excellent 6 x 4 inch lithographic crew photograph personally hand-signed by the complete three-person Soyuz MS-22 crew:

Sergey Prokopyev – Roscosmos
Dmitri Petelin – Roscosmos
Frank Rubio – NASA

An especially desirable modern space-autograph piece representing one of the most remarkable International Space Station missions of recent years — and now carrying additional historical significance following Frank Rubio’s assignment to NASA’s Artemis III crew.

SOYUZ MS-22

Soyuz MS-22 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 21, 2022, carrying Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio to the International Space Station.

The spacecraft docked with the station's Rassvet module approximately three hours after launch, beginning what was originally planned as a conventional six-month ISS expedition. For Rubio and Petelin, MS-22 represented their first flight into space, while Prokopyev was beginning his second mission.

What followed, however, transformed Soyuz MS-22 into one of the most memorable Soyuz missions of the modern ISS era.

THE SOYUZ MS-22 COOLANT LEAK

On December 14, 2022, while Soyuz MS-22 was docked to the International Space Station, the spacecraft suffered an external radiator coolant leak.

The incident meant that the vehicle originally intended to return Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio to Earth could no longer be used for their normal crew return.

Roscosmos consequently launched Soyuz MS-23 without a crew in February 2023 as a replacement spacecraft. MS-22 later returned to Earth uncrewed for technical analysis.

The change had a remarkable consequence for the three men whose signatures appear on this photograph:

their planned six-month mission became a stay of more than one full year in space.

A 371-DAY MISSION

Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio finally returned to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-23 on September 27, 2023, after spending 371 consecutive days in space.

For Frank Rubio, the extended flight established a major American spaceflight record.

He became the first American astronaut to spend more than one continuous year in space and set the record for the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut, surpassing the previous 355-day mark held by Mark Vande Hei.

During the mission Rubio completed approximately 5,936 orbits of Earth and traveled more than 157 million miles. The unexpectedly extended mission also provided NASA with valuable additional data concerning the effects of long-duration spaceflight — research directly relevant to future exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

That makes Soyuz MS-22 far more historically interesting than an ordinary ISS crew rotation.

A mission expected to last six months unexpectedly became a 371-day endurance mission, with the signatures on this photograph belonging to the three people who experienced that extraordinary journey together.

FRANK RUBIO – FROM SOYUZ MS-22 TO ARTEMIS III

The Frank Rubio signature has acquired an additional dimension of importance.

On June 9, 2026, NASA officially announced Rubio as one of the four prime crew members assigned to Artemis III.

The announced crew consists of:

Randy Bresnik – Commander
Luca Parmitano – Pilot
Andre Douglas – Mission Specialist
Frank Rubio – Mission Specialist

Artemis III is currently planned as a major crewed Orion test mission in low Earth orbit in 2027, designed to demonstrate rendezvous and docking operations with test versions or test articles of the commercial lunar landing systems being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.

These demonstrations are intended to reduce risk and validate critical systems ahead of the planned crewed lunar South Pole landing on Artemis IV.

Rubio's career therefore creates a fascinating link between two generations of current human spaceflight:

Soyuz and the International Space Station → Orion and the Artemis lunar exploration program.

His first spaceflight began aboard a Russian Soyuz from Baikonur.

His next assigned spaceflight is aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft launched by the Space Launch System as part of Artemis III.

Few contemporary astronaut autographs illustrate the transition from the ISS era to the Artemis era as clearly.

A SIGNED PIECE FROM AN UNEXPECTEDLY HISTORIC MISSION

When Soyuz MS-22 launched in September 2022, nobody could have anticipated the unusual sequence of events that would follow.

The coolant failure, replacement Soyuz, extended expedition and Rubio's resulting American endurance record transformed the mission into a particularly memorable chapter of International Space Station history.

Today, with Rubio officially assigned to Artemis III, the photograph connects his historic first flight with the next major phase of his astronaut career.