Astronaut Scott Kelly’s ends yearlong mission with stunning photo

“The space station here is a magical place”, Kelly said during his last public news conference aboard the ISS on Thursday.

How human bodies react to lengthy periods in space is a crucial subject for NASA, which predicts a round-trip manned mission to Mars would require two to three years inside a spacecraft.

Kelly is heading home on Tuesday from a record breaking stay at the International Space Station.

“Obviously going to Mars, there are a lot of other challenges, but none of these we can’t overcome”, Kelly told the Associated Press. They’re looking for physiological and psychological changes that almost a year in space might have caused. But I hope our nation embraces Scott, too, and honors the bravery, service and sacrifice embodied in his year in space.

Over a year in space, Scott Kelly has made a brilliant effort at staying connected with the world by posting some mind-blowing pictures of the Earth, giving regular updates on incredible experiments achieved on the ISS and posting some fun videos. 16, 2015, Kelly broke the USA record for the most time spent in space Friday _ 383 days.

He will have spent more consecutive days in space -340 – than any American.

Kelly’s twin brother, Mark, will serve as a point of comparison for the study.

Kelly is scheduled to return earth in the first week of this month. “A really smart person said to me one time, ‘Teamwork makes the dream work in spaceflight.’ Spaceflight is the biggest team sport there is”. It’s not the longest jaunt in space – back in the days when Russian Federation had its own space station, several cosmonauts pulled longer stretches and one even lasted 437 days. With more ambitious space travel planned for the coming decades, understanding how microgravity-the condition in which people or objects appear to be weightless-impacts humans over long durations is an extremely important element in the success of these missions, which could require several years in space. Russian Federation continues to rule, however, when it comes to long-duration spaceflight.

As for how Kelly can expect his body to feel upon returning to Earth, Pitts said it will take some time for him to get his “Earth legs” back.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly takes a selfie inside the Cupola, a special module which provides a 360-degree view of Earth. His identical twin, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, offered himself up as a medical guinea pig so researchers could study the differences between the genetic doubles, one in space and the other on the ground. NASA will spend years analyzing the tests he conducted on board.