NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has broken a record for U.S. astronauts, and has now spent more time in space than any other American.
Kelly reached the milestone of living in space for 383 cumulative days on Oct. 16, breaking the existing record set by fellow U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke, who spent a total of 382 days in space.
"Records are meant to be broken," he tweeted from the International Space Station as he orbited high above the Himalayan Mountains.
Kelly spent a full year on the International Space Station, taking part in experiments to help NASA gather data on the impacts of long-duration space flights on the astronauts and their bodies' capacity to respond to them.
NASA scientists on Earth are currently conducting parallel experiments on Kelly's identical twin Mark Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut.
Kelly will accumulate 522 days in space over the span of four missions by the time his current assignment ends on March 3, 2016.
"Breaking such a record for time in space is important because every additional day helps us better understand how long-duration spaceflight affects bodies and minds, which is critical to advancing NASA's journey to Mars," the space agency said in a statement.
In addition to breaking the cumulative day record, Scott Kelly will set a new record for the longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut on Oct. 29, reaching his 216th consecutive day in space.The previous record-holder was Michael Lopez-Alegria, who reached 215 days in 2006.
Kelly arrived at the ISS after leaving Kazakhstan on March 27 on a Russian Soyuz capsule along with two Russian cosmonauts. One of the cosmonauts, Mikhail Kornienko, is also going to spend an entire year aboard the space station with Kelly. More than 200 people from a number of countries have spent time aboard the ISS.
The world record holder for most accumulated days in space is Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who served as Expedition 44 commander of the ISS. When he returned to Earth from his mission, he had tacked up a total of 879 days of working and living in space, surpassing the 10-year-old record of 803 days set by fellow cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev.
On the other hand, the title-holder for the most time spent in space by a female astronaut is Peggy Whitson, who spent 376 days on the ISS for two missions. Whitson is scheduled for another tour on the ISS in the November 2016 launch of Expedition 50.
The first component of the ISS was launched into orbit in 1998. The station, which is now the largest man-made object in Earth orbit, makes around 15 circles of the globe each day.
