Year in Space, Astronauts US-Russia Given Blanket arrival at Earth

Soyuz capsule carrying NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko landed safely on Earth. Both spent 340 days on the International Space Station (ISS) and the record as the longest US space mission.

As reported by Reuters on Wednesday (03/02/2016), Russian Soyuz capsule carrying Kelly, Kornienko, and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov who accompanies them. If Kelly and Kornienko almost a year in space, new Volkov spent 5.5 months on the ISS.

Soyuz capsule successfully developed a giant parachute when entering the Earth, until finally landing on the barren pasture near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at around 10:26 local time. Landings occur interval of 3.5 hours after the capsule was left ISS in orbit.

Volkov is the first out of the capsule and was greeted by his father Alexander Volkov, who also cosmonaut. Kelly is the next exit, waving his hands excitedly and smiling before the conversation via satellite. Kornienko out at the end.

The trio was immediately given a blanket and get special handling by the team that has been on standby at the location.

Kelly (52) and Kornienko (55) is the subject of medical experiments and scientific research to delve deeper into how the vacuum of space and the environment with high radiation effect on the human body. This research to help NASA and its partners in developing plans to send humans to Mars that will last at least 2 years.

Kelly, who has a twin brother, Mark, a former NASA astronaut, also participated in genetic research first to find out whether there are genetic changes that occur after a space mission for a long time.

Kelly's space mission for 340 days beating the previous record held by former US astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is located in the ISS for 215 days in 2007. While the record of the longest space mission in the world is held four Soviet-era cosmonaut. Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov named in space for nearly 483 days in January 1994 to March 1995.

ISS is a joint project of the US, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Since 2000, these countries put their astronauts in turns. The size of the ISS as a house with 5 bedrooms, worth US $ 100 billion and is orbiting at an altitude of 400 kilometers of the Earth's surface.

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