ARussian cosmonaut has achieved an astonishing feat by spending most number of days on the International Space Station (ISS). Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka has officially set a new Guinness world record by spending 804 days on the ISS.

Padalka, who is also the commander of the crew on the ISS, surpassed cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, former Russian Air Force officer who spent 803 days, nine hours and 41 minutes in the space, across six mission from 1998 to 2005. In addition, Padalka is scheduled to return to earth in September this year and by then he would have spend a total of 877 days in space.

Born on June 21, 1958, in Krasnodar, Russia; Padalka graduated from Eisk Military Aviation College in 1979; in 1994 he left UNESCO International Center of Instruction Systems, where he was an engineer–ecologist. After graduation from the Military College in 1979, Gennady Padalka served as a pilot and a senior pilot in the Air Force. In 1989, he was selected as a cosmonaut candidate to start training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. In 1991, Padalka was qualified as a test cosmonaut. Since then he never looked back and became the most experienced cosmonaut.

Coming to his personal life, Padalka is married to Irina Anatolievna Padalka (Ponomareva). They have three daughters, Yulia, Ekaterina and Sonya. Gennady enjoys the theater, parachute sport and diving.

Moreover, ISS is a space station that was launched in 1998.ISS is the largest artificial satellite body that orbits earth nearly 400 km above the surface and it can be seen with naked eye. Recently a man clicked a photo of ISS orbiting the earth. ISS moves at a very high speed and it completes 15.54 orbits per day.

Source….www.tecake.com

Natarajan