Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who is the current commander of
the International Space Station (ISS), has set a new record for most
time spent in space, with a total of 803 days, Russian space agency said
Tuesday.
“The record is official. Gennady Padalka has become the
man who spent the most time in space,” a spokesman for the Russian
federal space agency Roscosmos told AFP.
Padalka, who turned 57 on
June 21, is currently on his fifth space mission. Trained as a military
pilot during the Soviet era, he first went to space in 1998, when he
served as commander on the pre-ISS Mir orbital complex that year.
When
Padalka returns to Earth in September with fellow ISS crew members
Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly, he will have spent a total of 877
days — or roughly 2.5 years — in space.
He is a veteran
spacewalker and was described by a US colleague as the best at training
space rookies on how to live in zero gravity.
“If you’re a new guy
[on the ISS], the guy you want to fly with is Padalka, he’s the
greatest Obi-Wan ever,” astronaut Mike Fincke said in a Nasa video,
apparently referring to a key character in the Star Wars saga.
Source: AFP
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