What Astronaut Scott Kelly Will Do as Soon as He Lands

His record-breaking trip was amazing
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 1, 2016 7:17 AM CST
Astronaut Scott Kelly Is Coming Home
In this July 12, 2015, photo, astronaut Scott Kelly takes a photo of himself inside the Cupola, a special module of the International Space Station that provides a 360-degree viewing of the Earth and the station.   (Scott Kelly/NASA via AP)

Scott Kelly has been hurtling through the cosmos on the International Space Station for nearly a year (340 days to be exact—a record), but on Tuesday, the NASA astronaut and his partner, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, will finally head home. ScienceAlert has the emotional video of Kelly handing the ISS reins over to NASA astronaut Tim Kopra. More:

  • A major part of Kelly's mission was so NASA could document how his body reacted to being in space for so long (his twin, astronaut Mark Kelly, stayed back on Earth as the control). Wired relays the toll on the human body that microgravity and radiation exposure take—including the intriguing phenomenon known as the "Charlie Brown effect."
  • The AP explains what he'll try to do immediately after landing in Kazakhstan Tuesday night. First, "pop up from a lying position and stand still for three minutes."

  • There's a video floating around of some NASA "hijinks" aboard the ISS, and it's enough to make Scientific American wonder if Kelly stayed in outer space "too long."
  • The Houston Chronicle puts awe-inspiring figures up to match Kelly's feats in its "by the numbers" gallery. (Don't worry, the picture accompanying the fact that he drank 193 gallons of recycled urine and sweat is pretty tame.)
  • On Saturday, Kelly tweeted a photo of what he says was "one of the best" sunrises he saw during his whole year in space. USA Today has put together a stunning compilation of what it calls Kelly's "raddest photos."(National Geographic features some cool images, too.)
  • NASA offers a list of the seven ways Kelly will have to readjust to being back on Earth.
Kelly recently described parts of the Earth as looking "kind of sick." (More discoveries stories.)

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