American astronaut Scott Kelly, a retired U.S. Navy Captain who made his first trip into space in December of 1999, has now spent more time in space than any other American.
Kelly, who now has 384 days in space accumulated under his belt, announced the record breaking in a tweet from his confirmed Twitter account in which he wrote, “Records are meant to be broken.”
Records are meant to be broken. Look fwd to one of my colleagues surpassing my end 500+ days on our #JourneyToMars! https://t.co/6SrbC8kIBP
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) October 16, 2015
In his first mission beyond Earth’s atmosphere, the 51-year-old New Jersey born astronaut was tasked with servicing the Hubble Space Telescope in what was an 8-day mission known as STS-103.
Before his recent record breaking, Kelly was next in line to Mike Fincke — an American astronaut who clocked a total of 382 days in space over the course of just three missions, Discovery News reports.
America’s own records aside, the world’s record for the most days spent in space goes to Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who has spent a whopping 879 days in space.
According to Kelly, a colleague of his will likely exceed his own record when NASA sends the first humans to Mars — an event scheduled by the administration for the 2030s.
Scott Kelly, who occasionally tweets from outer space, shared footage of the aurora borealis earlier this year and while it might not seem like much, the footage was captured from his post on board the International Space Station. And while it might not come as much of a surprise, the footage is, needless to say, incredible.