While NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has now returned to Earth, he has paved the way for future missions after embarking on a one-year mission in space. And, perhaps, it’s not a moment too soon.
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ISS Expedition 47 officially begins, under Kopra’s command, when the Soyuz carrying Kelly, Kornienko and Volkov undocks from the space station.
As he wrote himself on Twitter, where he posted this video, he “Needed a little humor to lighten up a #YearInSpace”.
The monkey suit is a gift from Kelly’s twin brother and fellow astronaut Mark Kelly who sent it to his brother in a care package.
Not that Kelly’s latest foray in space – his fourth visit, giving him a tally of 520 days off Earth by the time he touches down – has turned him off ever returning.
Tweeting that you should “Go big, or go home.’ Kelly chose to cut loose and dress up in a gorilla suit for reasons that immediately become obvious when you see a giant ‘gorilla” start flying around a space station in zero gravity.
Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko joined Kelly for the year long stay on the ISS. Mark then added, “Um, @StationCDRKelly, I thought you said you had things under control up there on @Space_Station?”. Well, Scott Kelly and Tim Peake that’s who. “And I’m hopeful, and I think we will learn a lot about longer-duration space flight and how will it take us to Mars someday”.
A mission to Mars will likely last about three years, about half the time coming and going to Mars and about half the time on Mars. I was able to draw a few interesting conclusions from my work on this project, but foremost among them is that the gender gap in space travel remains formidable.
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During Kelly’s year-long mission aboard the orbiting laboratory, his participation in science wasn’t limited to the one-year mission investigations.
