Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko back to Earth after spending one year in the International Space Station

Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko have returned back to Earth after spending one year in the International Space Station - this is seen as a stepping stone to NASAs Mission Mars in the 2030s. Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko landed in barren Kazakhstan with a Russian cosmonaut who shared his whole space station journey.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 2 March 2016.

Their Soyuz capsule was piloted by a much fresher and decade younger cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, who had been in the space station for the normal six months. He piloted the Soyuz capsule home for Kelly, 52, and Kornienko, 55 - the capsule parachuted onto the central Asian steppes to bring to an end a science-rich mission at the International Space Station. That mission had begun last March and was perceived as a steppingstone to Mars.
Incidentally, in the course of their stay in the ISS the pair traveled 144 million miles through space, circled the world 5,440 times and experienced 10,880 orbital sunrises and sunsets during the longest single spaceflight by an American.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Russian Soyuz-U blasts off with Progress M-28M ship carrying supplies to ISS

#InternationalSpaceStation #Soyuzrocket #MikhailKornienko #ScottKelly Recently, the SpaceX Dragon space capsule exploded after take-off and many supplies meant for the ISS was destroyed. The International Space Station has enough supplies until October, but there is an urgent need for ferrying of the crew.
Therefore, an unmanned cargo ship has taken off from Kazakhstan and is on its way to the International Space Station where the crew comprising cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly are waiting. This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 3 July 2015.

The Russian Progress M-28M ship has been now placed safely into a designated orbit, en-route to the station and it is due to dock with the Russian-manned station on Sunday. The ship is carrying 2.4 metric tons of fuel, oxygen, water, food and other supplies for the crew.
There has been a number of failed attempts in the recent past - the previous Progress launch in April, followed by a US supply mission attempt last Sunday when the rocket broke apart shortly after lift-off and a launch pad failure last October when another supply-carrying cargo failed at the launch pad.
Hence there is a need to keep standby options ready.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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United States and Russia join forces in preparation of long term Space missions

#InternationalSpaceStation #Soyuzspacecraft #NASA #redplanet On 27 March, a team of three would fly to the International Space Station and two of them will not return soon – they would remain on the ISS so that their fitness can be evaluated by specialists in preparation for sending humans to distant planets like Mars.
This has been reported in space.com dated 23 March 2015.

The three are American astronaut Scott Kelly of NASA and two cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka of Russia – they will blast off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The first two namely Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko would stay on for a whole year and pave the way for future missions of longer durations. It will be the first time that an American would spend a continuous year in space.
Their stay in the ISS for a whole year would help to have a better understanding of how the human body would react and adapt to the harsh environment of space. Based on the findings, suitable decisions can be taken to work out how best to reduce the risks on future long-duration missions to some asteroid and, eventually, the Red Planet Mars.

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NASA gears up for Mars mission – two astronauts to remain one-year on the ISS

#NASA #ISS #ScottKelly #MikhailKornienko #Marsmission NASA has identified two astronauts who would remain on the International Space Station ISS continuously for a period of one year in preparation of manned mission to Mars. The two are NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. They are scheduled to launch in March 2015 and would remain on the ISS till March 2016.
This purpose of this mission is to observe how human bodies change throughout the year so that it can be understood how the body is affected by long-term spaceflight. Normally, astronauts remain on the ISS for limited tenures and are rotated every six months – but, this would be a one-year mission and would be undertaken to study long term effects.
This would mark the first time a crew would have spent a continuous year on the space station, and researchers plan to take advantage of it. The scientists and doctors on the ground will be monitoring the way Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko adapts to the ISS environment.
One aspect would be their eyesight - Kornienko and Kelly's eyes will be monitored for any changes to their eyesight.
When they return to Earth, officials will examine them on their ability to perform certain tasks that might be needed once a group arrives on Mars for the first time after a long spaceflight. The probable tasks could be the light construction of a habitat, or moving items around. They could experience a bit of dizziness and other symptoms that could be induced by arriving back in an environment of higher gravity.