Why astronaut Scott Kelly just spent a year in space, The amplitude abridged descended acclaim through the stratosphere, like a falling feather. As it slipped through the clouds, a aberrant acreage loomed below.
Just as the ability was about to hit the ground, six engines al of a sudden accursed simultaneously, bringing the Soyuz bank bore to a absorptive stop.
Scott Kelly looked out the all-around window at the flat, arid area about him.
It wasn't Mars. It wasn't even the moon.
It was Kazakhstan.
But afterwards 340 canicule in space, anywhere on planet Earth acquainted like home.
"The air feels abundant out here," Kelly quipped, according to a NASA spokesman, as able-bodied Kazakhs in abundant coats and bristling hats hoisted him from the broiled capsule. "I accept no abstraction why you guys are all arranged up."
Then he pumped his anchor in celebration, zero-gravity-weakened anatomy be damned.
Over the accomplished 11 months, Kelly and Russian aide Mikhail Kornienko accept catholic 144 actor afar through space, orbited the apple 5,440 times and accomplished 10,880 sunrises and sunsets. Kelly's 340-day assignment in amplitude is a almanac for an American astronaut, as is his absolute of 520 canicule advance over four missions.
Even added than his records, however, it's Kelly's attitude that has fabricated him a army admired aback on the Big Blue Marble. He has performed atrocious spacewalks, auspiciously developed (and eaten) bill in alien amplitude and chased a aide about the International Amplitude Base in a apache suit. He has chatted with anybody from President Obama to Stephen Colbert to academy kids.
Perhaps a lot of memorable of all, he has airtight added than 1,000 beauteous photos of the planet, administration them with his about 1 actor Twitter followers with the hashtag "#yearinspace."
And that's what it acquainted like -- for all of us.
"Talking to anyone who's in orbit. . . It's like I'm an astronaut appropriate now," gushed Colbert.
Kelly's safe acknowledgment Tuesday night is, therefore, a bit of a alloyed blessing. We accept regained an Earthling, but absent a bright and arbitrary appearance of our planet from 250 afar up. He tweeted, "Huge acknowledgment to all that fabricated this admirable barrage possible."
His chance began with a March 28, 2015, blastoff. But even afore the rocket engines roared to life, Kelly was already broadcasting his exoteric acquaintance as no American astronaut had anytime done before.
On Feb. 15, 2015, he acquaint a photo of himself sitting in a about abandoned NASA appointment with a assurance reading: "BE BACK IN 365 DAYS." The day afore liftoff, he added: "Just awoke from pre-launch nap. Last time in bed for a year."
Kelly fabricated it feel like we were in the cockpit with him. He was our agent to alien space.
The acquaintance connected aboard the ISS. In his aboriginal cheep from alien space, he thanked aboriginal adult Michelle Obama for adulatory him acceptable luck.
"Thank you. Fabricated it!" he wrote. "Moving into aggregation abode on @space—station to activate my (hash)yearinspace."
More than a thousand tweets followed, about anybody of them featuring a jarringly active photograph of the planet. From the amplitude station, bedding of icebergs appeared to be burst glass, chastening resembled admirable tapestries and the Himalayas -- the tallest mountains on Earth -- looked like a weary world's wrinkles.
He tweeted, "Will be missing these bank too, but searching advanced to albino beaches up close."
Many of Kelly's photos were unbelievable. Swirling red and blooming auroras seemed like scenes from Star Trek. The Milky Way was a sparkling sea of stars surrounding Scott. And every 90 minutes, he was advised to the a lot of amazing aurora or dusk a animal had anytime seen.
From up high, he watched as abiding and abiding armament dictated contest below. He witnessed a celebrated snowstorm coffin the East coast, and saw smoke acceleration from wildfires affective beyond a drought-stricken California.
He tweeted. "Massive #snowstorm blanketing #EastCoast acutely arresting from @Space—Station! Stay safe!"
But he could aswell see the furnishings of humankind.
"Today we had this absurd canyon over the Himalayas and to see all that abuse that is just benumbed up adjoin the mountains from the south is just really, absolutely . . . heartbreaking," he told CNN's Sanjay Gupta.
"Shocked & afflicted by agitator attacks on #Paris," he tweeted as he soared aloft the stricken City of Ablaze hours afterwards the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks. "Standing with #France from @space—station. Our thoughts are [with] you."
Even as his photos captured hearts and minds on Earth, Kelly still had a day job to do in alien space. Much of it complex allowance NASA adapt to forward astronauts to Mars in about 15 years.
In conceivably the a lot of important experiment, Kelly served as a analysis accountable for the abiding furnishings of active in alien space, area aught force boring saps beef backbone and cartilage density. Kelly took his own blood, performed ultrasounds on himself and got adolescent ISS aggregation associates to appraise his eyes to see how he was arresting with his yearlong amplitude sojourn. The after-effects will be compared to those from his twin, Mark, a retired astronaut aback on Earth.
"Scott's the guinea pig in amplitude and I'm the guinea pig on Earth," Mark Kelly said on The Today Show. "We accept a acceptable faculty of what it takes to fly in amplitude for six months, but if one day we adjudge we wish to go to Mars or some added destination in the solar system, we apperceive what the engineering is to do that, we don't apperceive a lot about the animal body. So Scott spending a year in amplitude and NASA belief both of us, because we are genetically the same, that's traveling to accord NASA a lot of advice to ability out into the solar system."
Working a dozen hours a day, Kelly juggled added experiments.
"It's a limited abode and it's a boxy ambiance because you can never leave, there is no active water, there is a lot of plan to do, you're consistently at work," he told The Today Show.
He grew bill in aught force and ultraviolet light, again recorded himself bistro his camp crop, tweeting: "It was one baby chaw for man, one behemothic bound for #NASAVEGGIE and our #JourneytoMars."
His accomplishment to abound zinnia flowers was not so successful, at atomic at first. The plants were overtaken by mold, banishment Kelly to cut off locations and ad-lib techniques to restore them aback to health.
"Our plants aren't searching too good. Would be a botheration on Mars. I'm traveling to accept to approach my close Mark Watney," he tweeted in advertence to the blockbuster cine "The Martian." In the movie, Watney, an astronaut played by Matt Damon, is abandoned on Mars, area he devises an able and abominable way to abound potatoes.
When Kelly's zinnias assuredly bloomed in mid January, the blossoms fabricated account about the world.
"There are a lot of parallels with that cine to active in amplitude for a continued aeon of time, including growing things in an acute environment," Kelly told CNN.
In fact, Kelly's year in amplitude didn't just accompany with the movie's release, it aswell coincided with a billow in American absorption in amplitude exploration. Photos of Mars taken by the Curiosity departer helped reignite absorption in visiting the fourth planet from the sun. Meanwhile, the New Horizons delving airtight such amazing photos of Pluto that humans became cornball for the canicule if it was a planet.
Nothing humanized the cold, bashful bound of alien amplitude like Kelly and his amusing media posts, however. He accurate the aberrant amplitude aliment he alloyed into acutely abhorrent combinations. He slurped espresso from an beginning apparatus on National Coffee Day. He wore a awful affectation on Halloween. And he chased a aide about the ISS in a apache suit. . . just because.
He aswell exchanged amusing tweets with acclaimed admirers, none bigger than the administrator in chief, who tweeted, "Hey @StationCDRKelly, admiring the photos. Do you anytime attending out the window and just aberration out?
Kelly tweeted, "I don't aberration out about anything, Mr. President. Except accepting a Twitter catechism from you."
Just as the ability was about to hit the ground, six engines al of a sudden accursed simultaneously, bringing the Soyuz bank bore to a absorptive stop.
Scott Kelly looked out the all-around window at the flat, arid area about him.
It wasn't Mars. It wasn't even the moon.
It was Kazakhstan.
But afterwards 340 canicule in space, anywhere on planet Earth acquainted like home.
"The air feels abundant out here," Kelly quipped, according to a NASA spokesman, as able-bodied Kazakhs in abundant coats and bristling hats hoisted him from the broiled capsule. "I accept no abstraction why you guys are all arranged up."
Then he pumped his anchor in celebration, zero-gravity-weakened anatomy be damned.
Over the accomplished 11 months, Kelly and Russian aide Mikhail Kornienko accept catholic 144 actor afar through space, orbited the apple 5,440 times and accomplished 10,880 sunrises and sunsets. Kelly's 340-day assignment in amplitude is a almanac for an American astronaut, as is his absolute of 520 canicule advance over four missions.
Even added than his records, however, it's Kelly's attitude that has fabricated him a army admired aback on the Big Blue Marble. He has performed atrocious spacewalks, auspiciously developed (and eaten) bill in alien amplitude and chased a aide about the International Amplitude Base in a apache suit. He has chatted with anybody from President Obama to Stephen Colbert to academy kids.
Perhaps a lot of memorable of all, he has airtight added than 1,000 beauteous photos of the planet, administration them with his about 1 actor Twitter followers with the hashtag "#yearinspace."
And that's what it acquainted like -- for all of us.
"Talking to anyone who's in orbit. . . It's like I'm an astronaut appropriate now," gushed Colbert.
Kelly's safe acknowledgment Tuesday night is, therefore, a bit of a alloyed blessing. We accept regained an Earthling, but absent a bright and arbitrary appearance of our planet from 250 afar up. He tweeted, "Huge acknowledgment to all that fabricated this admirable barrage possible."
His chance began with a March 28, 2015, blastoff. But even afore the rocket engines roared to life, Kelly was already broadcasting his exoteric acquaintance as no American astronaut had anytime done before.
On Feb. 15, 2015, he acquaint a photo of himself sitting in a about abandoned NASA appointment with a assurance reading: "BE BACK IN 365 DAYS." The day afore liftoff, he added: "Just awoke from pre-launch nap. Last time in bed for a year."
Kelly fabricated it feel like we were in the cockpit with him. He was our agent to alien space.
The acquaintance connected aboard the ISS. In his aboriginal cheep from alien space, he thanked aboriginal adult Michelle Obama for adulatory him acceptable luck.
"Thank you. Fabricated it!" he wrote. "Moving into aggregation abode on @space—station to activate my (hash)yearinspace."
More than a thousand tweets followed, about anybody of them featuring a jarringly active photograph of the planet. From the amplitude station, bedding of icebergs appeared to be burst glass, chastening resembled admirable tapestries and the Himalayas -- the tallest mountains on Earth -- looked like a weary world's wrinkles.
He tweeted, "Will be missing these bank too, but searching advanced to albino beaches up close."
Many of Kelly's photos were unbelievable. Swirling red and blooming auroras seemed like scenes from Star Trek. The Milky Way was a sparkling sea of stars surrounding Scott. And every 90 minutes, he was advised to the a lot of amazing aurora or dusk a animal had anytime seen.
From up high, he watched as abiding and abiding armament dictated contest below. He witnessed a celebrated snowstorm coffin the East coast, and saw smoke acceleration from wildfires affective beyond a drought-stricken California.
He tweeted. "Massive #snowstorm blanketing #EastCoast acutely arresting from @Space—Station! Stay safe!"
But he could aswell see the furnishings of humankind.
"Today we had this absurd canyon over the Himalayas and to see all that abuse that is just benumbed up adjoin the mountains from the south is just really, absolutely . . . heartbreaking," he told CNN's Sanjay Gupta.
"Shocked & afflicted by agitator attacks on #Paris," he tweeted as he soared aloft the stricken City of Ablaze hours afterwards the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks. "Standing with #France from @space—station. Our thoughts are [with] you."
Even as his photos captured hearts and minds on Earth, Kelly still had a day job to do in alien space. Much of it complex allowance NASA adapt to forward astronauts to Mars in about 15 years.
In conceivably the a lot of important experiment, Kelly served as a analysis accountable for the abiding furnishings of active in alien space, area aught force boring saps beef backbone and cartilage density. Kelly took his own blood, performed ultrasounds on himself and got adolescent ISS aggregation associates to appraise his eyes to see how he was arresting with his yearlong amplitude sojourn. The after-effects will be compared to those from his twin, Mark, a retired astronaut aback on Earth.
"Scott's the guinea pig in amplitude and I'm the guinea pig on Earth," Mark Kelly said on The Today Show. "We accept a acceptable faculty of what it takes to fly in amplitude for six months, but if one day we adjudge we wish to go to Mars or some added destination in the solar system, we apperceive what the engineering is to do that, we don't apperceive a lot about the animal body. So Scott spending a year in amplitude and NASA belief both of us, because we are genetically the same, that's traveling to accord NASA a lot of advice to ability out into the solar system."
Working a dozen hours a day, Kelly juggled added experiments.
"It's a limited abode and it's a boxy ambiance because you can never leave, there is no active water, there is a lot of plan to do, you're consistently at work," he told The Today Show.
He grew bill in aught force and ultraviolet light, again recorded himself bistro his camp crop, tweeting: "It was one baby chaw for man, one behemothic bound for #NASAVEGGIE and our #JourneytoMars."
His accomplishment to abound zinnia flowers was not so successful, at atomic at first. The plants were overtaken by mold, banishment Kelly to cut off locations and ad-lib techniques to restore them aback to health.
"Our plants aren't searching too good. Would be a botheration on Mars. I'm traveling to accept to approach my close Mark Watney," he tweeted in advertence to the blockbuster cine "The Martian." In the movie, Watney, an astronaut played by Matt Damon, is abandoned on Mars, area he devises an able and abominable way to abound potatoes.
When Kelly's zinnias assuredly bloomed in mid January, the blossoms fabricated account about the world.
"There are a lot of parallels with that cine to active in amplitude for a continued aeon of time, including growing things in an acute environment," Kelly told CNN.
In fact, Kelly's year in amplitude didn't just accompany with the movie's release, it aswell coincided with a billow in American absorption in amplitude exploration. Photos of Mars taken by the Curiosity departer helped reignite absorption in visiting the fourth planet from the sun. Meanwhile, the New Horizons delving airtight such amazing photos of Pluto that humans became cornball for the canicule if it was a planet.
Nothing humanized the cold, bashful bound of alien amplitude like Kelly and his amusing media posts, however. He accurate the aberrant amplitude aliment he alloyed into acutely abhorrent combinations. He slurped espresso from an beginning apparatus on National Coffee Day. He wore a awful affectation on Halloween. And he chased a aide about the ISS in a apache suit. . . just because.
He aswell exchanged amusing tweets with acclaimed admirers, none bigger than the administrator in chief, who tweeted, "Hey @StationCDRKelly, admiring the photos. Do you anytime attending out the window and just aberration out?
Kelly tweeted, "I don't aberration out about anything, Mr. President. Except accepting a Twitter catechism from you."
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