Space records shatter as astronaut returns home
2 years, 4 months, 29 days. That鈥檚 how long Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka has spent orbiting Earth.
Upon returning from the International Space Station (ISS) today, Mr. Padalka became the most-experienced space flier on the planet, breaking the previous record for the longest amount of time spent in space, held by his countryman聽Sergei Krikalev, who completed 803 days over 6 missions.
In just five missions, Padalka has him beat by 76 days.
"I like to fly," , before launching on his latest mission.
The space frontier has transformed during Padalka's twenty-plus years as a cosmonaut: The Mars Pathfinder and the Phoenix Mars lander explored Mars, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft landed on asteroid Eros, Cassini investigated Saturn鈥檚 rings, Stardust brought comet dust back to Earth, and Dawn became the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
Padalka's own achievements have contributed to crewed spaceflight, first on Mir and then with four missions to the ISS.
Padalka鈥檚 first mission took him to the in 1998, where he began preparations to shut down the Russian station. He repaired Mir's life-support system, did cabling work to optimize solar power collection, and gathered experimental data from the space station's exterior, according to聽.
Padalka spent much of his second mission aboard ISS in 2004 on maintenance and a series of human research studies. In 2009, Padalka commanded a six-man crew, collaborated with the , inaugurated the Japanese Robotic Arm & Kibo鈥檚 airlock, and completed structural assessments of the outboard solar arrays.聽
The next year, as part of , Padalka contributed to dozens of experiments, including investigating astronaut physiology, examining high speed and thermal neutrons, and testing the first humanoid robonaut.
Expedition 44 marked Padalka鈥檚 fifth mission, and he told interviewers before launching in March that he hopes to pass 1,000 days in space on his next mission reported .
"I still hope that spending a long time in space, and conducting experiments with my colleagues, who are also approaching this record, will be of huge significance for future missions," he .
