NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and two Russian cosmonauts are about to be launched in space. The mission to the International Space Station is not only geared to make headlines but it will also see Williams take the record for the most time in space by a U.S. astronaut previously held by NASA's Scott Kelly.

The Most Experienced Man in Space

Williams, 58, will be making history with the most cumulative days in space ever at the end of the nearly six-month expedition coming up. It will make his career total at 534 days out there, which is two weeks more than Kelly's record.

For his part, the retired Army colonel from Wisconsin believes his job of spending extended periods of time in space is a privilege.

"It's a call to do it," he said. "It's been a great privilege that I don't take for granted."

His NASA career has been a long stretch of accomplishments and the upcoming trip makes him the first astronaut from the agency to be part of a third long-duration mission. It's his fourth overall trip to the ISS, which is now an expansive space about the length of a football field.

"It's an amazing human accomplishment," Williams revealed of the ISS. "I want to take the opportunity to remind the world just what an undertaking the space station has been."

Six-Month Expedition Will Keep Williams Busy

Williams will be part of the upcoming Expedition 47 and then take command of Expedition 48 later on. He will be with Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka as they board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and launch from Kazakhstan at 5:26 p.m. EDT Friday. The group will reach the orbiting laboratory less than six hours later.

Some of the activities Williams is expected to participate in during the mission include standing in as a "guinea pig" to monitor microgravity's effects on the body, two spacewalks and activating a prototype inflatable module designed by Bigelow Aerospace, all of which are useful for future explorations.

Kelly's Records and His Exit From NASA Service

Scott, 52, recently returned from a year-long mission at the ISS that Latin Post reported on last year. It sets the current record that Williams is slated to break. His career total is 520 days in space over four missions. While this one is nearly broken, Scott still enjoys a U.S. record of the longest single spaceflight, although Russia holds the record of 438 days.

Despite his accolades, Kelly confirmed that he's already planning to retire after 20 years in NASA.

"You need to leave when the time's right for you -- and the time is right for me," he said.

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