Kelly and Kornienko specifically participated in a number of studies to help with NASA’s Journey to Mars mission, including research on how the human body adjusts to weightlessness, isolation, radiation and stress during long-term spaceflight.
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Researchers will examine Kelly’s health to find out if he has suffered any effects during his extended stay in space.
Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko, left, Sergey Volkov, center, and US astronaut Scott Kelly rest in chairs outside the Soyuz TMA-18M space capsule after they landed in a remote area outside the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, March 2, 2016.
“I could go another year if I had to”, Kelly said last week in a wide-ranging news conference.
“Probably nearly half the time I’ve been here – between sleeping and working on the computer, I’ve spent in a box the size of a phone booth”, Scott Kelly said in an interview with NBC News while the astronaut was still in space.
Kelly will next travel back to Houston, Texas.
“Those of us who dream of sending astronauts to deep space thank Scott Kelly for his sacrifice”, said Jim Green, director of planetary science for NASA, “and are thrilled to welcome him home”.
The record-breaking pair, however, had launched into space on 23 March last year to embark on what would be called the year-long mission, despite the fact that they spent just a total of 340 days in space.
Before leaving the ISS, Cdr Kelly posted a final picture from the craft on Twitter, with the message: “Rise and shine!”
All told, after adding up all of Kelly’s missions over the years, he will have set the American record of 520 days in space.
Following a farewell ceremony, Kelly and Kornienko, who is Russian, are scheduled to enter the Soyuz capsule docked with the ISS around 2100 GMT.
Kelly had relinquished the command of the ISS on Monday, and noted that he and Kornienko “have been up here for a really, really long time”.
More than 200 people form 15 different countries have lived and worked at the International Space Station since November 2000.
Kelly has completed a almost yearlong mission on the International Space Station, the longest any USA astronaut has been in space. Kornienko has accumulated 516 days across two flights, and Volkov has 548 days on three flights.
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NASA and its partners chose to fly two crewmembers for a year on the station as a pilot program to prepare for eventual human missions to Mars lasting at least two years.
