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Time to discover Earth all over again!
American record holder for the most cumulative time in space, Scott Kelly has successfully returned to earth. Including his one-year mission, he has accrued a total of 520 days in space. Now he is all set to retire from NASA on 1 April 2016, but will continue to contribute to NASA in whatever way po
“On April 1, I will retire from NASA. While I am leaving NASA, the journey is not over”, says the ever positive astronaut Scott Kelly who is recently back from a record 340 day long mission on the International space station.
52-year-old Kelly spent a U.S. record 340 days in orbit on the International Space Station. He also holds the American record for most time in space – 520 days accrued over 4 missions including the latest year-in-space mission. Kelly’s first tryst with space was with space shuttle Discovery’s trip to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on the STS-103 servicing mission in 1999. On his second mission, STS-118, he crossed the threshold of the International Space Station for the first time as commander of space shuttle Endeavour. He returned to the station for a six-month stay in 2010, commanding Expedition 26.
His latest mission saw him travelling some 143,846,525 miles around the globe while conducting various experiments and studying the long term effects of space on the human body.
NASA announced Mr. Kelly’s retirement on Friday, less than two weeks after he returned to Earth. He leaves the space agency on April 1. “I look forward to continuing my 30 years of public service in a new role,” Mr. Kelly, who joined the Navy in 1987, said in a Facebook post. “To continue toward any journey, we must always challenge ourselves to take the next step.”
Following his retirement, Scott will continue to participate in the ongoing research related to his one-year mission for as long as is necessary. He will continue to contribute by providing periodic medical samples and support other testing in much the same way that his twin brother, former astronaut Mark Kelly, has made himself available for NASA’s Twins Study during his brothers mission.
Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston was all praises for Scott, “His contributions to NASA are too many to name,” said. “In his year aboard the space station, he took part in experiments that will have far-reaching effects, helping us pave the way to putting humans on Mars and benefiting life on Earth. His passion for this work has helped give hundreds of thousands of people a better understanding of what NASA does, thanks in part to the numerous photos and updates he shared from space. We appreciate his years of service and anticipate many benefits to come from them, thanks to the research he’s supporting.”
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a retired astronaut himself, said the space agency and science in general is grateful to Kelly, who he added deserves “meals that don’t come in a bag, a cold beer, hot showers, cool autumn breezes, the sounds of birds chirping, the ability to lay his head on an actual pillow and so much more of the pleasures of life.”
Astronauts who eventually will land on Mars “will be following in the footsteps of one of the finest astronauts in the history of the space programme, my friend, Commander Scott Kelly,” Mr. Bolden said in a statement.
Space can be a pretty demanding place given the very limited options of physical activities and food. Most importantly social interactions are severely curtailed; it doesn’t come as a surprise that Kelly posted hundreds of images, mostly of Earth from orbit, on social media. But he also engaged in a little fun, donning a gorilla suit that was a gag gift from his brother and chasing fellow astronauts through the space station in a video.
His re-entry into land living was good and bad. Home in Houston, he dove into his backyard pool still in his blue flight suit, going underwater for the first time in nearly a year. But clothing was a problem. In space, his clothes floated around him and didn’t touch his skin.
“It’s very, very sensitive,” he told reporters last week. “It’s almost like a burning feeling wherever I like sit or lie or walk. Adjusting in space is easier than adjusting to Earth for me,” Kelly said in his first post flight news conference a week ago. Even then he gave a hint of what was to come, saying he doubted he’d fly again for NASA but adding, “I’ll never be done with space. I will always be involved.”
As a parting comment, Kelly made light of his record time in space, saying, “Records are meant to be broken, I am looking forward to when these records in space are surpassed.”
