Scott Kelly returns to Earth today after a year in space

New Delhi: NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is returning home from orbit inside a Soyuz spacecraft today after living 340 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

 

Kelly and his crewmate Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Soyuz Commander Sergey Volkov will undock from the station's upper Poisk module at 8:05 p.m. EST, Tuesday (6:35 a.m. Wednesday, in India) as they set out on their journey towards Earth.

The extended stay will help NASA better understand the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body. Most importantly, scientists will also gain further insights by comparing Kelly with his earthbound identical twin, Mark Kelly, who is a retired NASA astronaut.

 

While there and travelling more than 220 miles above the Earth, Kelly shared stunning images of our planet via Twitter and Instagram, apart from videos documenting every day life in space.

While Kelly and Kornienko will have accumulated 340 days in space, Volkov will have been orbiting 182 days when they land in Kazakhstan Tuesday at 11:25 p.m. (10:27 a.m. Kazakhstan time on March 2).

Kelly and Kornienko were launched to the space station on March 27, 2015, for their one-year mission.