Astronaut Jeff WIlliams Breaks Space Endurance Record

Jeff Williams on the recent EVA to install the International Docking Adapter.

 

Expedition 48 Commander and NASA astronaut Jeff Williams broke the US record of being in space the longest, passing the recent record made by year-long ISS astronaut Scott Kelly, who had reached 520 days in space, cumulative, from his several missions and year-long stay on the ISS. On August 24, Williams passed that mark, and by the time he returns home on September 6, he will have 534 days to his record. Williams has been on 4 missions.

Williams displays patches from the missions he has been involved with through his career.

Williams first went into space on the Space Shuttle Atlantis in May 2000, on mission STS-101, a resupply mission to the new ISS, during which he performed his first EVA. In 2002, he also spent a week as a diver in the deep sea lab Aquarius. He returned to space in Expedition 13 in 2006 for a six month stay and performed two more EVAs. In September 2009, Williams returned for another 6-month stay on ISS and became commander of Expedition 22. He was the back-up astronaut for Scott Kelly on the 1-year mission, which comprised expeditions 43 through 46. He is on his 4th mission, serving first as flight engineer on Expedition 47, now as Commander of Expedition 48. He is scheduled to return home on Tuesday, September 6.