Russian and American back after a year on space station

U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly reacts shortly after landing near the town of Dzhezkazgan (Zhezkazgan), Kazakhstan, March 2, 2016. REUTERS/Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool

American Scott Kelly and Russian Mikhail Kornienko are back on Earth after nearly a year in space.
Together with the Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov they landed with a space capsule in Kazakhstan on  Wednesday.
One purpose of Kelly and Kornjenkos’ stay on the International Space Station (ISS) is to learn more about how people cope with being  in space for a long time. This will be important for any future manned space missions to Mars.
Now Kelly will be undergoing tests and be compared with his twin brother – who has been on Earth over the past year. The researchers want to determine if the two have developed differently.
Kornjenko and Kelly have been 340 days in space. The person with the longest continuous stay in space is still Russian Valery Polyakov, 437 days.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today