Scott’s 340-day trip to the International Space Station was the longest for any American astronaut.
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The almost yearlong mission, while unprecedented for the ISS, did not set the record for most time spent in space continuously. A Soyuz capsule carrying Kelly, Kornienko and Sergey Volkov, another Russian cosmonaut, made a parachute landing on the steppe near the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan at 10:26 a.m. (2326 GMT), about 3-1/2 hours after departing the station.
You know, on the one hand, I look forward to going home, but it’s something that has been a big part of my life, and I’m going to miss it.
The “one-year crew” mission – which began on March 27 last year – was the longest by any astronauts aboard the ISS and seen as a vital chance to measure the effects of a prolonged period in space on the human body.
Though he’s no longer an astronaut, Mark Kelly volunteered to take part in NASA’s “Twins Study” with his brother.
With this one-year mission in space, Kelly has “helped us take one giant leap toward putting boots on Mars”, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.
Perhaps the best gift of all to scientists is Kelly’s identical twin – astronaut Mark Kelly.
“But Commander Kelly’s accomplishment, while notable in its own right, is serving a greater goal. So, we’ll learn a lot about how space changes you”, said Dr. Steve Lee, Planetary Sciences Curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Scicence. NASA is hoping to use some of that information for future missions to Mars.
Kelly returned to bitterly cold Kazakhstan on Wednesday, along with his roommate for the past year, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko.
NASA is also studying how long-term space missions could affect astronauts psychologically, especially the isolation from loved ones that comes from being up in space. While en route, Kelly tweeted a picture of his first salad back on Earth, noting it will be important to grow fresh food during Mars expeditions, like his space station lettuce crop. From Kazakhstan, Kelly will travel to Houston, US, where he was scheduled to arrive later on Wednesday. Kornienko has accumulated 516 days across two flights, and Volkov has 548 days on three flights.
It’s been a long, exhausting year for astronaut Scott Kelly, and to celebrate the end of his stay aboard the International SpaceStation (ISS), he had a little fun with his fellow bunkmates.
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Kelly also promised to keep a personal journal of his experience on the space station and said that he might share it with us.
