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Space-Time: Scott Kelly Breaks Time-Aloft Record For US Astronauts (usatoday.com)

Posted by timothy on from the now-how-we-will-tell-them-apart dept.

NASA astronaut -- and Commander of the International Space Station -- Scott Kelly on Friday broke the record for time in space -- for U.S. astronauts, at least; the overall longest flight of 437.7 days belongs to Valeri Polyakov, and the Washington Post points out that Russia’s Gennady Padalka has spent a total of 879 days aloft. Kelly brings a unique asset to the long-term study of health for spacefarers, because his twin brother Mark, here on Earth, serves as close to a perfect control subject as NASA could hope to have. Kelly is a prolific tweeter about the progress of his year-long mission aboard the ISS; on the occasion of beating the time-aloft record, his modest acknowledgement read only, "Records are meant to be broken. Look fwd to one of my colleagues surpassing my end 500+ days on our #JourneyToMars!"

18 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Well Done by rmdingler · · Score: 1
    These self-sacrificing extended stays in zero gravity are important for studying, and eventually overcoming, human physical deterioration in space.

    Thank you for every barrier penetrated, every obstacle overcome, and every sacrifice made.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Well Done by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

      Yes, I'm sure that they are only going up only for studying the effects of zero gravity and not because it's a trip of a lifetime.

    2. Re:Well Done by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      I don't think she'd be thanking you if the barrier was penetrated.

  2. Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ by Iamthecheese · · Score: 1

    I'm looking forward to the even more important "longest time in space while being female" award.

    --
    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
  3. Space Age Reenactment Society by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This space stuff in 2015 looks like Civil War reenactments or live-action role playing. It has the same impact on our lives. Great theater, gets some people worked up, the rest of us really care very little.

  4. Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    http://i.imgur.com/melqEZf.png

  5. 500 days to Mars is a good thing? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Let's work on getting there in a week. In the meantime, you know, there's the moon to experiment with...

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:500 days to Mars is a good thing? by delt0r · · Score: 2

      Lets run numbers. Assume 1g~10m/s2 the whole way and ignore the sun and orbital mechanics (turns out for many cases this is not so bad, max V will still be accurate to first order anyway). We turn around in the middle of course so max speed is in the middle. The max distance is 401 million km. So that is a top speed of 2000km/s or about 0.07% the speed of light. In practice it would be slightly higher by about 50km/s. Of course most of the time mars is much closer and you would be going much slower. Also this trip would take 112 hours.

      --
      If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
  6. Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Well, Audrey Meadows has been to the moon several times...

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  7. will there be a post for every country record? by sittingnut · · Score: 1

    in this age of glottalization and world wide web(heard of that?),only record that counts is the world record.
    btw is this really an american record if he is carried and kept there by russians?

    i would be voted down by people who can't face facts.

  8. and I think its gonna be a long long time by rossdee · · Score: 1

    Is he paid hourly or just salary?

    He should get paid more than someone who just does "my job 5 days a week"

    and thats a LOT of money

    1. Re:and I think its gonna be a long long time by delt0r · · Score: 1

      Why should he get paid more? Many people would be happy to do it for free. Some others would pay for the privilege.

      --
      If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
  9. Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ by murdocj · · Score: 1

    If you really knew your Physics 101, you'd include the stop at Venus to pick up some atmosphere.

  10. Scott Kelly on Friday by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

    Scott Kelly on Friday

    Did he change his name in hope of getting a talk show when he comes back down?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  11. Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ by delt0r · · Score: 1

    Longest time is space while being black and female? What about midgets, or jews? They have records as well right. How about a black female midget jew, who is also president of something.

    --
    If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
  12. Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ by delt0r · · Score: 1

    na, do a flyby of the sun to get some hydrogen that you can then combine with mars atmosphere to make rocket fuel. And there is probably lots of He3 in the sun as well. We all know we need to be mining He3. Cus, reasons.

    --
    If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
  13. Congrats to brother Mark Kelly by anyGould · · Score: 1

    For being the brother who lost the coin toss, and thus had to stay home and be a NASA lab monkey to compare against his famous brother.

  14. Re:Longest Time Gazing At Navel While Being Americ by sconeu · · Score: 1

    She's already been there? I thought she was just going one of these days....

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.