Lift off for groundbreaking space mission

Published Mar 30, 2015

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Cape Canaveral – NASA’s Friday launch went off without a hitch. At 3.42 pm Eastern time, U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly left the ground at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and headed to the International Space Station in a Soyuz rocket.

With no delays and all systems working perfectly, NASA’s mission control seemed calm and pleased throughout live broadcasting of the launch.

Along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, Kelly will spend nearly a full year aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka also launched with Kornienko and Kelly, though he’ll spend only the standard six months aboard ISS before returning to Earth.

The year at ISS will approach the record time spent in space: 14 months by Valeri Polyakov in 1994 on the defunct Russian Mir station. It’s also going to break the record for the longest time spent on the International Space Station, and Kelly will break NASA’s spaceflight length record by about five months.

Scott Kelly’s twin, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, has volunteered to spend his year being poked and prodded as much as his space-bound brother will be. Scientists across the country submitted research proposals in the hope of taking advantage of twin study data, and the 10 selected experiments will examine how spaceflight affects factors including gut bacteria and DNA expression.

With Scott Kelly’s diet, environment and routine strictly regimented, scientists will be able to note how his cells and body bacteria change without wondering what outside variables might be affecting the data.

Mark Kelly, in addition to spending a year providing blood samples and answering questionnaires, has a new gig to keep him occupied while his twin is in space: On Thursday, MSNBC and NBC News announced that Kelly would serve as their space and aviation analyst – starting with coverage of his brother’s launch.

Padalka, although staying in space a shorter period of time than the other men, is breaking a record, as well. Having made three trips to ISS and spent time on the Mir station, he has spent more than 710 days in space already. Once he finishes his current mission, he will have broken the record (currently held by Sergei Krikalev with 803 days) for total time spent off Earth.

After docking at the space station, Scott Kelly, Kornienko and Padalka will be welcomed by current station residents Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti.

Washington Post-Bloomberg

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