Astronaut Scott Kelly, who landed in Kazakhstan from the International Space Station on Tuesday, touched down at Ellington Field in Houston at around 2.15 a.m. ET.
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He will be welcomed home by Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, Dr. John P. Holdren, senior presidential adviser for science and technology, NASA chief Bolden and Mark Kelly, his twin brother and fellow NASA astronaut.
Kelly set a USA record of 340 days in space, and said Wednesday he could have stayed up longer if necessary, giving him confidence future astronauts will be up to the challenge of even longer flights to Mars and beyond. He said, “The thing I like most about flying in space is not the view, or floating, or the other stuff that’s fun about this-riding the rocket and coming back to earth, but doing something I feel very strongly about, very passionately about”. “But for him it’s been a long time, but it’s great that he made it back safe”, said friend Robert Tijerina.
The mayor said Kelly is remembered by many in town, noting the astronaut serves as an inspiration for local schoolchildren.
Scott Kelly takes his images through the windows of the Space Station’s cupola module.
“Thanks to Kelly’s work, in addition to that of everyone at NASA and in the USA space industry, the president believes the United States will be successful in that journey to Mars”, the statement added.
Kelly and Kornienko, who both spent 340 days in space, returned with Russia’s Sergei Volkov, who was stationed at the ISS for over five months. He was chosen because scientists could compare his body to his Earth-bound twin brother’s body to measure differences.
Now that Kelly is home, his journey is just beginning.
CSU already has some of the Kelly twins’ blood. Because arms and legs are not constructed like the spine, with space in between the bones, this elongation only happens to the spine.
In one striking example, Scott Kelly grew two inches taller during his year in space. “Follow me as I rediscover #Earth!”. We must lead. We must discover. On this flight alone, the pair traveled 144 million miles through space – the average distance between Earth and neighbor Mars – and were exposed to cosmic radiation.
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Kelly and Kornienko were due to split up later today. Volkov is returning after six months on the station. “This mission is the latest achievement in our countries space program, but it is not the last, there will be more”, Kelly says. “I’ve no idea why you guys are so bundled up”, NASA TV reported him as saying as he sat upright in a chair on the steppe in temperatures just below zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).
