Gennady Padalka: record 879 days in space station

Russia’s  cosmonaut, Gennady Padalka, after five  missions,  has set a record of living in space, logging a total of 879 days, two months longer than the previous record holder, another Russian cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev.

Padalka was among a three-man crew  from the International Space Station, brought back to earth in a Russian space capsule that landed safely in Kazakhstan on Saturday.

The other cosmonauts are  Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency and Aidyn Aimbetov of Kazakhstan.

They landed on the steppe just two minutes before sunrise and were feeling fine. Their Soyuz TMA-16M capsule touched down on schedule at 0651 local time (0051 GMT) Saturday, 146 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Dzhezkazgan, in what a NASA commentator called a “bull’s-eye landing.”

Padalka spent 168 days on this most recent stint, while Mogensen, from Denmark, and Aimbetov each spent 10 days in orbit. Both Mogensen and Aimbetov were the first astronauts from their countries to fly into space.

Nasa’s Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren remain on the station along with Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko and Japan’s Kimiya Yui, the Associated Press reported.