Scott Kelly Embarks on a Miles-High Space Walk to Upgrade Space Station

Astronaut Scott Kelly performed a 250 miles-high space walk from the International Space Station on Wednesday just one day before he is set to break the current U.S. flight record with his 215 days in the space station.

Kelly and his American co-worker, Dr. Kjell Lindgren, emerged from the International Space Station to take their first-ever space walk and execute a six-and-a-half-hour mission to make several maintenance upgrades to the station’s exterior, including the installation of a thermal cover on the station’s Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, ABC News reported. The two astronauts also greased the station’s big robot arm and cable routing that is to be used for a docking port in the future. Both men are scheduled to conduct another set of maintenance repairs on Nov. 6

Kelly has been living on the space station orbiting 250 miles above the earth since March of this year, and he is set to remain in space until March of 2016, according to The Associated Press. On Thursday morning, Kelly will break the record set by fellow American astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria. But neither man's record will beat the 14-month time set by Russian astronaut Valery Polyakov between 1994-1995 on Russia’s Mir station.

Nevertheless, President Barack Obama called Kelly on Astronomy Night at the White House, telling him, “You’re setting a record that’s nothing to sneeze at,” Ars Technica reported.

Kelly’s space walk on Thursday marks the 189th to occur on the International Space Station, as well as NASA’s 32nd upon the low-Earth orbit outpost, according to ABC News. In addition to Kelly’s anticipated U.S. flight record, he has already broken the U.S. record for the most cumulative time spent in space at 383 days across four missions, according to the AP. By the time this latest mission has concluded, Kelly will have spent 522 days in space.

Kelly, in conjunction with his astronaut twin brother, Mark Kelly, are participating additionally in a study that is analyzing the long-term effects on humans living in space, ABC News reported. The results produced by this study will be used to help inform NASA’s preparations to send humans to Mars one day in the near future.

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