14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the American space agency say that they now have a new record-holder for most days spent in space by a US astronaut. Michael Fincke, a member of space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 crew, has now surpassed the previous, 377-day record.
Late last night, on May 27, he reached the previous record, which was held by NASA chief astronaut Peggy Whitson. With every passing minute, Fincke is now pushing the envelope even further.
By the time he returns to Earth, on June 1, he would have spent more than 382 days in space, thus setting a new endurance record. He managed to reach this impressive number of days during three missions to the International Space Station (ISS).
Fincke is now a mission specialist in the six-astronaut crew that is manning Endeavour during the orbiter's last flight ever. After it undocks from the ISS – tomorrow, May 29 – the spacecraft will land, undergo decommissioning procedures, and then shipped to a museum for permanent display.
Endeavour is looking good for a June 1 landing at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida. After all toxic chemicals it contains will be removed, the shuttle will be shipped to the California Science Museum, in Los Angeles.
Thus far, the STS-134 crew carried four successful spacewalks during their stay on the ISS. The fourth extravehicular activity was the last ever to be conducted by a shuttle crew. During the STS-135 mission, space shuttle Atlantis' four-astronaut crew are not scheduled to conduct any EVA.
Fincke participated in three of the four spacewalks carried out in the past week or so. “It's certainly an honor to get a chance to fly up in space, and especially for long periods of time,” he said.
Also worthy of mention here is the fact that the astronaut – a colonel in the United States Air Force – is only 44 years old, of which more than one was spent in space. He joined the ranks of NASA astronauts back in 1996, Space reports.
Despite reaching a new milestone for American spaceflight, Fincke is not the worldwide record-holder for time spent in space. Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, of the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos) – holds that record, at 804 days spent in orbit, during six missions.
The American astronaut reached his performance after two long-term stays on the station. He was first a part of the Expedition 9 crew, back in 2004, and then a flight engineer for Expedition 18, in 2008.
Interestingly, for both stays at the ISS, Fincke launched on Russian-built Soyuz space capsule, so STS-134 was the first time he actually rode an American space shuttle to low-Earth orbit.
“I’ve been here at NASA for 14 years. I spent a year in space, but I’ve never launched on, or landed on, a space shuttle before, so it was with great surprise and pleasure that I got assigned to STS-134, commanded by Mark Kelly, and got a really great crew,” the astronaut said before the launch.