Russian astronaut broke world record for stay on ISS

Gennady Padalka, the Russian astronaut who is now aboard the ISS, today broke the world record for the total time spent in orbit. Padalka spent more than 803 days aboard the ISS. The previous record was set by another Russian astronaut, Sergei Krikalev, 10 years ago.

Now Gennady Padalka is making the fifth space flight in his career. He went to the ISS on March 27, and is scheduled to return to Earth on September 11. The total time spent by the astronaut on the ISS should be 880 days.

Today the cosmonaut of ROSKOSMOS Gennady Padalka broke the record for the total duration of orbit pic.twitter.com/FAKjk6uU13

- ROSKOSMOS (@fka_roscosmos) June 29, 2015

Now the author of the previous record, Sergey Krikalev, holds the post of deputy general director of TsNIIMASH, the head scientific institute of Roscosmos, announced his intention to personally congratulate his colleague. “This day I will definitely come to the Mission Control Center and congratulate him. I will do it “ironically”, the author of the previous record said.

Sergey Krikalev set his own record in 2005. At the same time, he received congratulations from the MCC on the record. Until 2005, most of the time in orbit was spent by Valery Polyakov, whose result was 678 days in space.