Astronauts landed successfully after an epic stint in space

Astronauts landed successfully after an epic stint in space

At 11:27 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov made a successful one in Kazakhstan. Kelly and Kornienko spent a total of about 340 days in space. It was part of a one-year experiment at the International Space Station.

American astronaut Scott Kelly and his Russian team mate completed an unprecedented 340-day mission aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday and successfully parachuted to Kazakhstan.

“We can’t but rejoice that I could do it at my age,” said Kelly (52 years old). He managed to redirect the orbital outpost team and transfer control to NASA astronaut Timothy Kopre, one of the three men remaining at the station.

Kelly and station flight engineer Mikhail Kornienko began their first long stay in 15 years of work on March 27, 2015. They worked with eight different crew members during their 340-day mission, according to reports of the US space flight commission.

Kelly and Kornienko during their 3, 5 hour trip home to Earth were accompanied by Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, who was also on board the station from September 2015. Their Russian Union capsule should make a parachute landing in Kazakhstan at 23:25 EST. NASA and its partners decided to deliver an additional two crew members over the course of a year to prepare for possible human missions to Mars that will take at least two years. As a rule, teams are on board for six months

Kelly's space flight is many times longer than a 215-day American flight with Michael Lopez-Alegria.

The Russians, however, remain the long-term champions of space flight with four cosmonauts of the Soviet era, who spent even more time in orbit than Kelly and Kornienko. The world record for the single longest spaceflight — almost 438 days — was a mission with cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who lived on the now defunct Soviet space station MIR from January 1994 to March 1995.

After the first medical examinations in Kazakhstan, Kelly should fly back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for reunion with his family and friends.

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