After spending a record 340 days on the International Space Station, American Astronaut Scott Kelly announced he is already looking forward to his next visit.
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Kelly has spent more time in space, altogether, than any other American: 520 days over the course of four missions. On Monday, Kelly recalled, “A really smart person said to me one time, ‘Teamwork makes the teamwork in spaceflight, ‘ and spaceflight is the biggest team sport there is”.
The research aims to help the USA space agency and its partners develop plans for eventual human missions to Mars that will last at least two years. It’s the focus of a special on PBS tonight called “A Year in Space”.
“Astronauts get taller in space as the spine elongates”, Williams said, “but they return to preflight height after a short time back on Earth”.
When asked about what it was like to spend up to 11 months on the space station, Kelly reiterated that it wasn’t an easy task.
SCOTT KELLY, NASA Astronaut: Sure.
In this Wednesday, March 4, 2015 photo provided by NASA, astronaut Scott Kelly sits inside a Soyuz simulator at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) in Star City, Russia.
There is a myriad of ways Kelly’s body could have changed while in space. “These are things that interest me”, Blake Chamberlain, NASA medical officer, said. Obama said the data from Kelly’s trip will help achieve his vision of sending American astronauts to Mars by the 2030s.
“You do grow when you’re up there for a long time”, Kelly said previous year.
There is also the problem of balance, as the inner ear is sensitive to gravity and no longer functions correctly up in the International Space Station.
This Friday, NASA TV will air two briefings regarding Kelly’s mission, and discuss the next steps for the roughly 400 investigations.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is back on Earth.
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“We are talking about muscle strength, muscle coordination, blood, urine analysis, EKG, heart and lung performance, pulmonary capacity … the bone density scan – all of this compared to his pre-flight”, said retired NASA astronaut Tom Jones. When asked how he felt being back on Earth, Kelly responded, “Physically, I feel pretty good”. Over the coming days, he will be participating in a press blitz of television spots, a Facebook Live broadcast, and a Reddit AMA, plus there should be some interesting news in the pipeline regarding his participation in the Twins Study with his identical twin and fellow astronaut Mark Kelly.
