But as of Wednesday, the torch has been passed to International Space Station commander Jeffrey Williams, who just logged his 521st day in orbit.

When Williams lands in Kazakhstan on September 6, he will have spent 534 days in space, doing different works, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported in a communique. That surpasses the 520-day record set by Scott Kelly, whose one-year space station mission ended in March. On Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016, Williams, commander of the ISS, marked his 521st day in orbit, accumulated over four flights.

NASA has accomplished many things on the International Space Station, but that may be coming to an end very, very soon.

. And even that won't come close to the world record of 879 days held by Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka - a total of 2 ½ years. Space doesn't have quite the same housing bubble that we're dealing with on Earth right now, but as it cost NASA $150bn to build this is definitely going to cost more than a two-bed flat in Ealing.

However, in the years that have passed since the first modules were launched into orbit in 2000, it has become clear that worldwide space agencies like NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos are not going to fund it forever.

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Williams is a native of Wisconsin and is married with two grown sons and three grandchildren, according to his NASA bio. He then returned to the station in December of 2014, serving as flight engineer for Expedition 42, and commander on Expedition 43.

Americans haven't rocketed into orbit from their home turf since NASA's last shuttle flight in 2011.

About 20 percent of NASA's annual budget goes to the operations, transportation, and maintenance of ISS, and government officials have scored the agency for earmarking too much money for low-Earth operations and Earth science research, and not for deep space missions.

But their crew capsules can't dock without this new-style parking spot, which replaces the now obsolete shuttle setup and is meant to be internationally compatible.