Space Station Crew Back on Earth After Record U.S. Spaceflight

Wednesday, March 2, 2016 4:35 am | 2 Minute Read

The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft carrying International Space Station (ISS) crew members U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly, Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Mikhail Korniyenko descends beneath a parachute near the town of Dzhezkazgan (Zhezkazgan), Kazakhstan, March 2, 2016. REUTERS/Bill Ingalls/NASA/Handout ATTENTION EDITORS - FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PICTURE IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY — The Soyuz TMA-18M capsule carrying International Space Station (ISS) crew members U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly, Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Mikhail Korniyenko, descends beneath a parachute near the town of Dzhezkazgan (Zhezkazgan), Kazakhstan, Wednesday. (Reuters/Bill Ingalls/NASA/Handout)

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth on Wednesday after nearly a year on the International Space Station, the longest U.S. space mission on record, intended to pave the way for human travel to Mars.

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., about 3-1/2 hours after departing the station.

Kelly and Kornienko have been aboard the space station for 340 days, about twice as long as previous crews. Their flight sets a record for the space station and for the longest U.S. space mission.

Kelly’s 340-day mission eclipses the previous U.S. record-long spaceflight of 215 days, set by former astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria aboard the space station in 2007.

The world’s longest missions were carried out by four Soviet-era cosmonauts aboard the now-defunct Mir space station, including a flight from January 1994 to March 1995, spanning nearly 438 days by record holder Valeri Polyakov, a physician.

Volkov, who had been in space for 5-1/2 months, was the first to emerge from the capsule, to be greeted by his father Alexander Volkov, also a cosmonaut.

Kelly, came out next, waved his hand energetically and smiled before beginning a satellite telephone conversation.

In their nearly year-long stay in space, Kelly, 52, and Kornienko, 55, have been the subjects of dozens of medical experiments and science studies regarding how the human body adjusts to weightlessness and the high-radiation environment of space. The research aims to help the U.S. space agency and its partners develop plans for eventual human missions to Mars that will last at least two years.

Kelly and his identical twin brother Mark, a former NASA astronaut, are also participating in genetic studies, the first study to ever assess if genetic changes occur during long spaceflights.

The International Space Station is a joint project of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada and is the successor to the Mir Space Station. It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews since 2000. Approximately the size of a five-bedroom house, the $100-billion station flies about 250 miles above the Earth.

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