US astronaut Scott Kelly has broke the world record for the most cumulative days in space with 16 October being the 383rd day.
He broke the record while waking up over the Himalayas surpassing U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke’s record of 382 cumulative days. He tweeted, “Records are meant to be broken. Look fwd to one of my colleagues surpassing my end 500+ days on our #JourneyToMars!”.
Kelly has been living aboard the International Space Station, where he conducts scientific experiments and uses social media to document life aboard the craft. One of his well known experiments is the Twin Study, to research how humans can endure long-term missions in space. By periodically testing samples from Kelly and his Earth-based twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, doctors coordinating with NASA hope to learn more about how space affects humans.
Kelly will break another record on Oct. 29 on his 216th consecutive day in space, when he will surpass astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria’s record for the single-longest space flight by an American according to NASA’s blog. He is scheduled to return to Earth on March 3, 2016, by which time he will have compiled 522 total days living in space during four missions.
