Wisconsin native and spaceman Jeff Williams.

1. Marathon Man

With very little fanfare, Wisconsin native Jeff Williams made history Aug. 24 when he broke the U.S. record for most time spent in space. By the time he returned to earth on Tuesday, Sept. 6, Williams had spent a cumulative – and amazing – 534 days in orbit across four space missions, surpassing fellow astronaut Mark Kelly’s record.

Williams took this picture, showing the Duluth/Superior area FROM SPACE.

2. Badger Born

Williams, 58, was born in Superior and raised in the tiny village of Winter, about 90 miles north of Eau Claire, where he graduated from high school in 1976. He still keeps in touch with his hometown – even from space: In May, he chatted about his space experiments with Winter students via a videolink from the space station.

Williams, shown here beside and unimaginable, vast emptiness.

3. Impressive Resume

Before becoming an astronaut, Williams was a U.S. Army test pilot, logging 3,000 hours in more than 50 aircraft and retiring from active duty as a colonel in 2007. He joined NASA’s astronaut program in 1996 and first went to space on the shuttle Atlantis in 2000. He began his third stint on the ISS in March, and he’s spent more than 25 hours spacewalking during his missions.

4. Eye in the Sky

During his spaceflights, Williams has been an active shutterbug: In fact, during his 2006 mission to the ISS he took more photos of the Earth than any astronaut in history. Many of these pictures became part of his book.

5. #Spaceman

Williams has been an active user of social media during his time in space, sharing his stunningly detailed photos of the planet with hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter (@Astro_Jeff), Instagram (@astro_jeffw), and Facebook (NASAAstronautJeffWilliams). Seriously, if you haven’t seen his pictures, you’ve just found a new source of amazement.