An astronaut just broke Scott Kelly's record, and Scott's not even mad about it
When NASA astronaut Scott Kelly came down to Earth after spending a year aboard the International Space Station, he flew back to the planet as a record holder.
Kelly clocked 520 days in space over the course of his lifetime, more than any other American in history ... until today.
NASA's Jeff Williams -- who is currently living and working aboard the Space Station -- surpassed Kelly's record on Wednesday. By the time Williams comes back down to Earth on September 6, he will have spent 534 days in space over the course of four missions.
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A lesser astronaut might be angry that his record was broken, but Kelly is no ordinary space explorer.
Kelly showed up at mission control to applaud Williams on his record-breaking stay in orbit.
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"I wanted to congratulate you on passing me up here in total number of days in space," Kelly said. "It is great to see another record broken."
Of course, Kelly also couldn't let the moment go without poking a little fun at Williams, asking him if he could stay in orbit "another 190 days" like Kelly did when he broke the record.
"That question is not for me, that's for my wife," Williams joked in response.
Williams first flew to space in 2000 aboard the space shuttle Atlantis and lived aboard the Space Station for long-duration stints in 2006 and from 2009 to 2010.
Williams didn't break all of Kelly's spaceflight endurance records. Kelly is still the American record holder for the longest space mission, at 340 days.
These kinds of records aren't built to last, however.
NASA's Peggy Whitson is expected to fly to the Space Station this November and break Williams' cumulative spaceflight record by the end of her six-month stay on the station.
Kelly probably won't have the chance to set another space record anytime soon. He retired from NASA in April after joining in 1996.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
