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Astronaut Scott Kelly Career Celebration

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Astronaut Scott Kelly

Astronaut Scott Kelly Career Celebration

The former astronaut Scott Kelly received the Intrepid 21st-Century Pioneer Award during the Salute to Freedom gala. The annual celebration is organized in New York City, on an aircraft carrier turned into a museum.

Scott Kelly had just finished his longest and his last mission in space. Between 2015 and 2016, he spent almost an entire year without interruptions in space, on the International Space Station. He came back to Earth on the 2nd of March.

He retired from NASA in the same month and started speaking at events around the country.

Before the actual event preparations, Kelly met with the Breitling Jet Team and convinced them to be official sponsors of Fleet Week. The company lent their L-39C Albatros jet for the whole duration of the event which ended on the 30th of May.

Scott Kelly’s last mission was “Year-in-Space”, a project designed to study the influence of prolonged space travel on humans. Another astronaut involved in the mission was the Russian Mikhail Kornienko, who spent 340 days in orbit.

After his return, Kelly often spoke about his experience in orbit. One of the messages is that pollution can be seen from space and that Earth’s atmosphere is only a thin layer in comparison with its mass.

His experience in space gave him a sense of how much human beings can accomplish. The extraordinary dimensions of the station and the incredible technology inspired him and helped him recover hope in humanity.

Kelly’s last mission is an attempt to foresee the effects on human health of prolonged travels in space. Such information is valuable for NASA’s plans for sending people to other planets. One long-debated trip is the one to Mars, which may happen before the year 2020.

Regarding this trip to Mars, the astronaut said that life support should be carefully considered, such as the quality of water and food. The ship will also need upgraded protection against radiations.

Among the effects that a space trip bears on humans, there are a loss of bone density, difficulties of keeping the balance and minor aches in the joints. All these are caused by the impact of low gravity – the body functions differently when weight pressure is low.

While not having fresh food available in space, Kelly even managed to grow lettuce on the International Space Station. At this moment, astronauts are served packaged foods similar to those in the army.

The retired astronaut Scott Kelly received the career honoring prize during an event organized by the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum from New York.

Image Source: YouTube

Finally Returning Home After Spending 340 Days In Space

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NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly prepares to return home.

NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly prepares to return home, after spending 340 days in space.

On Tuesday, March 1, US astronaut Scott Kelly is finally returning home, after spending 340 days in space. He traveled 144 million miles around the Earth. He performed 400 experiments. He posted 700 mesmerizing photos to Instagram.

Scott Joseph Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American astronaut, engineer and a retired U.S. Navy Captain. A veteran of three previous missions, Kelly was selected for this special year-long to the International Space Station, which began in March 2015.

Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on Expedition 26. Kelly’s identical twin brother, Mark Kelly, is a former astronaut. The Kelly brothers are the only siblings to have traveled in space.

Also, Kelly was featured on the cover of Time Magazine’s December 2014/January 2015 Issue and was included in one of Time’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2016. During the January 2015 State of the Union Address, President Obama recognized Kelly, who was in the audience, for his upcoming Year In Space mission.

Now, he returns to Earth after nearly a year in orbit aboard the ISS. High on his to-do list when he gets back: jumping into his pool and dining at a real table.

However, he stated that he could hold out another year in the “harsh environment” of space – where nothing ever feels normal – if he had to.

Yeah, I could go another 100 days. I could go another year if I had to. It would just depend on what I was doing and if it made sense, although I do look forward to getting home here next week.

Kelly assured reporters Thursday in a video news conference from orbit.

Going without running water for a year has made hygiene difficult, Kelly acknowledged: ‘It’s kind of like I’ve been in the woods camping for a year.’ But the hardest part of all, he said, is being separated from his loved ones, a situation that will pose even more of a challenge for astronauts sent to Mars.

Kelly took questions on Day 335 of what already is NASA’s longest single spaceflight. By the time Kelly checks out Tuesday and rides a Russian capsule to a landing in Kazakhstan, his mission will have lasted 340 days.

The world record for a single spaceflight is 438 days, set by a Russian cosmonaut in the 1990s. Even that will pale in comparison to a Mars expedition, expected to last two to three years round trip.

Scientists hope to learn much from Kelly’s mission to pave the way to Mars in two decades. They will also collect data from his Russian roommate for the year, Mikhail Kornienko.

On the other hand, Kelly will undergo a battery of medical and physical tests at the landing site. He will then be hustled home to Houston for more tests and weeks if not months of rehabilitation to recover from the punishing effects of an extended stay in zero gravity, including degraded vision and the loss of bone and muscle.

Awaiting his arrival in Houston will be his two daughters, his girlfriend, who works in public affairs at Johnson Space Center, and his identical twin, former astronaut Mark Kelly.

The brothers have submitted to similar medical tests for more than a year and will keep it up in the months ahead. NASA hopes the research on the genetically identical brothers will illuminate some of the more extreme effects of weightlessness on the body.

The Kellys talked often during the mission, more than they did before the flight, in fact. The 250-mile-high outpost has an Internet phone capable of calling anyone. Mission Control also arranges regular video conferences between astronauts and their families.

Scott Kelly said he was more anxious to return home following his last space station stint five years ago, which lasted 159 days. That was because of the assassination attempt two months earlier on his congresswoman sister-in-law, Gabrielle Giffords, Mark’s wife.

This time, Kelly said, he didn’t focus on the end of his mission but rather on each upcoming milestone: the arrival of supplies and crews, major experiments, spacewalks, maintenance tasks. Even so, he said, events from last summer or fall seem like forever ago.

On another note, the astronaut lightened things up recently by donning a gorilla suit – a gag gift from Mark – and cavorting through the station while the cameras rolled.

All in all, the next milestone in Scott’s journey is coming home, as he affirmed in the news conference. He ended the conference with a slow-motion backflip, undoubtedly one of the pluses of space.

Image Source: nasa.gov.

Transmitting From Space: ‘The Earth Looks Sick And Very, Very Fragile’

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Scott Kelly has been in orbit longer than anyone in American history.

Astronaut Scott Kelly has been in orbit longer than anyone in American history.

American astronaut Scott Kelly is transmitting from space: ‘The Earth looks sick and very, very fragile’. In one of his final interviews from the International Space Station, the astronaut commented on the home planet’s atmosphere from aboard the ISS and it sure didn’t sound very good.

Many of you may have read books and seen many movies about space. It’s quite a popular topic. But what about what happens in real life? Well, flying in space isn’t just for science fiction characters. It’s a real job. Real people can apply for it and one of those people who share a special passion for space for a long time, is called Scott Kelly.

Scott is currently in his 501st day in space over six different missions and the 321st day of his one-year mission aboard the International Space Station. He has now been in space longer than any other U.S. astronaut. He is expected to return home in March.

Until his long-awaited return, Scott spoke recently with CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta via satellite. During his time at the space station, Kelly has remained active on social media and often shares his unique perspective of the planet by posting photos.

Because of his spectacularly encompassing vantage point, Gupta asked Kelly how he would define the Earth’s condition if it were a human body.

There are definitely parts of Asia, Central America that when you look at them from space, you’re always looking through a haze of pollution.

the astronaut declared. He also added that, as far as the atmosphere is concerned and as far as being able to see the surface, the areas mentioned above definitely looked sick. He stated, in the same declaration, that he noticed weather systems, such as tropical cyclones, in unexpected locations.

Besides expressing his concern regarding the Earth’s safety, there is something more to the astronaut’s story. Part of Scott’s current mission includes conducting a twin health study.

The study is comparing the mental and physical toll on Kelly’s body in space with his twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who lives on Earth. The medical tests are measuring the impact of zero gravity on bone density, vision, blood, heart and cells, as well as the psychological impact on mood, stress and cognitive functions.

Kelly confessed that he is doing well, although he feels like he’s been up in space for a really long time and looks forward to getting home soon.

In short, there is nothing to be alarmed about. Kelly finally spoke of how being in space was an amazing experience and that there was indeed a possibility of alien life out there somewhere.

Image Source: nasa.gov.

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