By the time Williams returns to Earth on Sept. 6, he will have handily broken the record of Scott Kelly’s 520 days in space. While the two men racked up the milestones across multiple mission, Kelly got more attention because he spent nearly a year in space — a first for the United States. NASA is hoping that long-duration flights on the International Space Station generally will help with planning for a mission to Mars. When such a mission takes place, astronauts would likely have to spend a couple of years on a mission So the ISS program aims to have more one-year missions before the station is scheduled to be deorbited in the 2020s.
Originally published on Discovery News.