On November 2 , 2015 , it will have been 15 long time that humanity have ceaselessly lived in infinite aboard the International Space Station ( ISS ) . And with that milepost approaching , another has been set : NASA astronaut Scott Kelly hasbroken the recordfor the long clock time spent in place by a U.S. astronaut .
Kelly now has more than 385 cumulative twenty-four hour period of spaceflight , exceed the previous record by a U.S. astronaut of 363 24-hour interval , set by Mike Fincke across two trip to the ISS and one aboard a Space Shuttle . Kelly ’s time has been distribute across four missions , two Space Shuttle flights and two trip to the ISS . He has become renowned for hisstunning photographyof Earth taken from the orbit station .
His belated mission is his prospicient by far ; together with astronaut Mikhail Kornienko , they are spend 12 months on the ISS as part of the “ Year In Space ” delegacy , the first cosmonaut to expend that long on the station in a unmarried flight . The mission is being used to try how the human consistence copes with prolonged spaceflight , with future foreign mission to Mars , lasting about two eld , in mind .
“ I am midway into a one - twelvemonth mission aboard the International Space Station and what a journeying it has been , ” Kelly wrote in a post onFacebook . “ A twelvemonth really is a foresightful time … a long time to never be able-bodied to go outside , or find the Lord’s Day on your brass , or to see your kinfolk through anything besides a computer blind . But a mission to Mars is even longer , and the body of work we ’re doing right now is a huge leap in achieve the goal of sending mankind to take the air on the Red Planet . ”
Kelly is have sex for his fantastical photography of Earth from place . Scott Kelly / NASA .
On October 29 , Kelly will go against the U.S. record for the longest single spaceflight when he surpasses Michael Lopez Algeria ’s record of 215 sidereal day . By the time he returns to Earth on March 3 , 2016 , Kelly will have spent a sum of 522 days in space across his four missions , and 342 days on this delegation alone .
However , his records still fall far short of those set for all world , not just Americans . The criminal record for the most cumulative clip in place is 879 days , throw by cosmonaut Gennady Padalka , who returned to Earth lately on September 12 , 2015 . And the record for the longest exclusive spaceflight remains at 437 days , lay out by cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov aboard the Mir distance place from January 8 , 1994 to March 22 , 1995 . It will be a long fourth dimension until that is broken .
Kelly ’s latest military mission , though , will perhaps be one of the most important as we keep to take dance step towards landing humans on Mars
