After 340 days in space, the American astronaut is expected to return to earth this week together with cosmonaut Mikhail Kurinenko. Before his return he said: "I am definitely looking forward to returning to Earth. I've been here for so long that sometimes it just feels like I've been on the space station all my life."
The countdown to returning to Earth has begun. In a few days (currently scheduled for Wednesday morning), NASA astronaut Scott Kelly will complete his year-long (well, almost a year) mission on the International Space Station and return to Earth as the longest-serving American astronaut in space. He stayed with him for the last year Cosmonaut Mikhail Kurinenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency, and the two will return to Earth together.
340 days in space can affect a person's vision or their bones, but Kelly says that physically he feels very good. "I could have continued for another 100 days or another 100 years," he said in recent days during a final briefing with journalists before returning home next week. But the extended stay was also quite lonely. "The hardest part is being isolated from the people on the ground who are important to you," he said.
It was reported on the CNN network that the veteran astronaut saw some particularly spectacular sights of the Earth as part of his mission, including the northern lights and a view of Hurricane Patricia from the space station.
"I feel like an environmental researcher here from above," he said. "I see parts of the Earth that are just covered in pollution all the time. I see unpredictable weather, huge storms. This is the influence of man, these are not natural phenomena. In another interview he previously conducted with CNN, Kelly said that Earth's atmosphere "looks pretty fragile" from the International Space Station.
Upon landing on Earth, Kelly will be flown to a series of physical and scientific tests. After that he wants to jump straight into a pool of water, he said. Kelly won't be bringing back any mementos from space, though, this being his fourth mission outside the confines of Earth, but he does expect to bring back some personal items he took with him.
"I hope that more people will have the opportunity to do something like this in the future," he said. "The space station is a magical place and an amazing scientific facility. I will probably never see him again. But I'm definitely looking forward to returning to Earth. I've been here for so long that sometimes it just feels like I've been here all my life."
At the end of March last year, a Soyuz spacecraft was launched from Kazakhstan, carrying Kelly to the International Space Station. Astronauts are sent to the space station every few months, but Kelly was sent outside the Earth for almost a whole year.
This is NASA's first experience with a one-year journey, a prelude to journeys to Mars that are expected to last about two years.
Kelly, who knew the late Ilan Ramon and spoke with him many times while the two were preparing for the space flight, left behind his twin brother Mark on Earth, who actually also takes an active part in the experiment.
The two are identical twins, and Mark Kelly was also a former astronaut. Therefore, when the twin proposed to undergo the same tests that his brother would undergo on the space station, NASA immediately jumped on the idea. However, the two did not maintain the same eating regimen.
Mark, who is married to former congresswoman Gabriela Giffords (who survived an assassination attempt four years ago), made it clear that he has no intention of consuming "space food" and running two hours every day on a treadmill, as his brother did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHDbjVdR5HM
Reporter: Yaron Druckman, editor of the science channel at YNET
For the news about the launch of the two to the space station a year ago
