Veteran astronaut Scott Kelly has broken a record in NASA: he is now officially the NASA astronaut with the longest cumulative amount of time in space.
As of October 16, 2015, Kelly's total amount of time in space has reached 383 days, surpassing that of U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke who spent a grand total of 382. And once Kelly returns to Earth once his mission ends this March 2016, his number of space days will have reached 522.
"Records are meant to be broken," Kelly said of his achievement on his Twitter account, adding that he is also looking forward to fellow astronauts surpassing his record.
Speaking of breaking more records, he is bound to surpass another one this coming Oct. 29 for the longest time spent in consecutive orbit at 216 days.
Kelly has been with NASA since 1996, and his time in space is composed of four missions. His current one is to stay at the International Space Station for nearly a year.
This mission is part of a number of experiments to help researchers learn more about how the body copes to long term space flight. He is accompanied by Russian astronaut Mikhail Kornienko, and the data collected will be used to assess crew performance and determine better interventions to reduce risks associated with space travel and future NASA explorations.
Scientists on Earth see this mission as a milestone in NASA's plan to send people to and retrieve them from Mars.
One problem scientists found about sending people to the red planet is the long time it takes to get there. Aside from studying how people can adapt to long term space travel, experts are also looking into means to reduce travel time.
"Right now it's about an eight-month mission; we'd like to cut that in half," said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.
While Kelly may be the one who has spent the most time in space among his NASA colleagues, he has a long way to go before breaking the record of another cosmonaut, Gennady Padalka. Currently holding the record for the most cumulative amount of time anyone has spent in space, Padalka has stayed there for a whooping 879 days after the conclusion of his latest mission.
