His year-long mission on the International Space Station will come to an end next Tuesday.
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During the 340 days of this mission – which spanned four space station expeditions – Kelly has participated in a variety of research that will help scientists better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration spaceflight.
Staying in a hotel on the International Space Station could one day be a possibility, as it was one of the ideas floated at a US Congress meeting to map out the future direction of NASA, Digital Spy reveals.
NASA and astronauts have long known that traveling through space, with its microgravity, radiation exposure, isolation, confinement and elevated carbon dioxide-which can happen on space vehicles – can produce potentially adverse side effects. “The hardest part is being isolated from people on the ground who are important to you”, he said.”There is certainly a loss of connection with folks on the ground that you care for and love and want to spend time with – that is a challenge”.
This current mission has been called his Year in Space, and it will have lasted 340 days. His one-year stint at the ISS will be over next week when he lands in Kazakhstan.
Once they got to the space station, and over the last twelve months, they continued to provide samples, and will continue to do so for an entire year after they return, too.
In October 2015, he set the record for the total number of days spent in space by an American astronaut, 382.
After reporting at Johnson, the astronaut candidates will go through about two years of initial training on spacecraft systems, spacewalking skills and teamwork, Russian language and other requisite skills.
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Kelly and his brother Mark, who has been part of one-year mission from earth, will be examined after the astronaut returns to earth. “It would just depend on what I was doing and if it would make a difference, although I look forward to getting home next week”, Kelly said during a news conference.
