Lt. Col. E. Michael Fincke, an Emsworth native, is heading back into space tomorrow, and if the mission goes as scheduled, he'll become one of only three Americans to have spent more than a year in space.

In fact, Col. Fincke, who's already spent 187 days in space, could come close to or even top the United States record of 376.7 days currently held by astronaut Peggy A. Whitson, who did two missions aboard the International Space Station, NASA records state.

Nineteen cosmonauts from Russia or the Soviet Union have spent longer times in space, with Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev holding the record of 804.4 days (2.2 years) in space.

Col. Fincke, 41, now of Houston, is scheduled for a 3 a.m. Sunday blastoff in Kazakhstan aboard Soyuz TMA-13. He will serve as commander of Expedition 18 that will dock Tuesday at the space station.

Cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov is flight engineer, and spaceflight participant Richard Garriott, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency, also will be aboard.

In a recent NASA interview, Col. Fincke said the crew will install a new water system on the space station and perform electrical and computer upgrades. They also hope to complete a space station expansion project so six people, rather than just three, can reside there.

Col. Fincke is making his second long-duration flight on the space station. He was a flight engineer from April to October 2004 during Expedition 9.

A 1985 graduate of Sewickley Academy, Col. Fincke got a bachelor's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an Air Force ROTC scholarship, then received his master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University in 1990, along with other degrees.

As a test pilot with the U.S. Air Force, he logged 825 flight hours on more than 30 airplane types.

In April 1996, NASA selected him, and he's held various positions with the space agency with considerable time spent in Russia. In addition to space travel, he also commanded the second NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO 2) in May 2002 that involved living and working underwater for seven days.

During his 2004 mission to the space station, he completed four space walks totaling almost 16 hours.

In a recent NASA interview, he said his Pittsburgh work ethic helped him meet the challenges to become an astronaut. While in space, he said, he spent time searching for Pittsburgh's three rivers.

Col. Fincke said space travel is inherently dangerous, with the spacecraft traveling at 17,500 mph. But his first mission to the space station was so much fun he said he yearned to return to space. His job of making the space station a better place, he said, will help "in building the road to the future."