A new record was set by NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams after safely going back to Earth's Soil last Tuesday night.
Williams together with Cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin of Russia's space agency Roscosmos left the International Space Station after a 6-month long space travel for Expedition 48.
This expedition was commanded by Jeff Williams himself, together with his five flight engineers from Russia, Japan, and the USA.
This landing marks the four-spaceflight career of the astronaut and setting him as the record holder of having the 'most time spent in space' marking a total time off the planet to 534 days, 2 hours and 48 minutes. He right then beats the previous record holder, Scott Kelly, for the three-flight in space with a total of 520 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes last March.
The three landed at Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan where the Russian recovery team helped them out of their capsules and also helped them adjust to gravity.
During the change command ceremony last Monday, Williams said that they enjoyed their stay in space.
"We've enjoyed a great stay up here over the last almost six months, we especially enjoyed our stay with the entire crew of Expedition 48."
This landing also formally ends Expedition 48 and starts the 49th with Anatoly Ivanishin as the commander; together with NASA's Kate Rubin's, Takuya Onishi of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and three more crewmates are set to launch on September 23.
Williams together with Cosmonauts Skripochka and Ovchinin conducted hundreds of experiments in their 172 days of staying in space.
"This is a very significant time, in my opinion, in the life of the space station," Williams said.
"Going into the full utilization mode - being that orbiting laboratory that we've always said it was going to be - and just broadening what is going on here on station in ways that I hoped for, and for a period of time, I have to confess, I wondered if we were going to see it to fruition."
"Now I am confident we are going to see the exploitation of the International Space Station and take full advantage of the opportunities that it gives for all humankind on Earth."
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