NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams, who went back to the International Space Station as a part of the Expedition 48 mission, has reportedly broken a new time-in-space record.
After having surpassed a reported 520 days in space, Williams’ record breaks that even of the iconic Scott Kelly, who recently performed the year-in-space experiment so NASA could compare his body to his twin brother here on Earth to see how space affects the human body over time.
Kelly was happy for Williams, and even called Williams up to congratulate him on his achievement for surpassing him:
The record is of cumulative time in space, which means that the days in space were spent over several missions, and not only one. The record is also only in the U.S. domain; Williams has only broken the record for U.S. astronauts in space.
What this means is that space men from other space agencies around the world have actually spent more time in space than any U.S. astronauts have. Namely, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who has well over 870 cumulative days in space under his belt.
Williams is scheduled to return to Earth on September 6th, by which time he will have 534 space days racked up. He will then later be surpassed by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who will have even more accumulated days in space than Williams by the time her term on the International Space Station is complete.
It probably isn't Williams' last time in space, so he will likely rack up even more space time in the future.
Source: NASA