Krikalev Breaks Time-in-Space Record

August 16th, 2005

Early Tuesday Aug. 16., Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev will become the human with the most cumulative time in space. At 1:44 a.m. EDT he passed the record of 748 days held by Sergei Avdeyev.

Krikalyov, who has been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since April 15, passed the record previously held by fellow-Russian Sergei Avdeyev, who spent a career total of 747 days, 14 hours, 14 minutes and 11 seconds in space.

Krikalev spent his more than two years in space beginning in November 1988 with the start of his first long-duration flight to the Soviet space station Mir. Krikalev did back-to-back increments on his next Mir flight starting in May 1991 and returning to Earth in March 1992.

Krikalyov was aboard the Mir space station in December 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed, earning him the unofficial title of "the last citizen of the USSR." At the end of his 151-day mission, he returned not to the Soviet Union, but to Russia.

He became the first Russian to fly a Shuttle mission on STS-60 in February 1994. His second Shuttle flight took the Unity node to the International Space Station on STS-88 in December 1998. He was a member of the Station's Expedition 1 crew, launching in October 2000 and returning to Earth in March 2001. He launched as commander of Expedition 11 last April 14.