Expedition 43

Kelly describes re-adaptation to gravity, life on Earth

March 4, 2016 William Harwood

Astronaut Scott Kelly, re-adapting to gravity, people and wide open spaces after a record 340 days cooped up aboard the International Space Station, said Friday his muscles and joints are a bit sore — “just about all of ’em” — his skin is surprisingly sensitive and “I never felt completely normal up there.”

Record-setting space station crew lands after 340-day mission

March 2, 2016 William Harwood

Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko ended a record-setting 340-day stay in orbit with a fiery plunge to Earth Tuesday, settling to a jarring rocket-assisted touchdown in Kazakhstan to close out a medical research voyage that may help pave the way for flights to Mars.

Kelly, Kornienko about to wrap up 340-day mission

February 29, 2016 William Harwood

Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are making final preparations for return to Earth Tuesday evening, closing out a record 340-day stay aboard the International Space Station where they served as medical test subjects to learn more about the long-term effects of weightlessness, space radiation and isolation.

Photos: Space crew welcomed home after 199-day mission

June 12, 2015 Stephen Clark

Three space station residents crammed inside a capsule smaller than a compact car landed on the austere plans of Kazakhstan on Thursday, returning to Earth for their first taste of gravity and whiff of nature in nearly seven months.

U.S.-Russian-Italian crew returns to Earth

June 11, 2015 William Harwood

A Russian cosmonaut, a NASA astronaut and an Italian wrapping up her first space flight boarded a Russian Soyuz ferry craft early Thursday, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth, landing safely on the steppe of Kazakhstan to close out an extended 200-day mission.

Live coverage: Station crew safely lands in Kazakhstan

June 11, 2015 Stephen Clark

A U.S.-Russian-Italian space crew closed out a 199-day expedition on the International Space Station with a parachute-assisted landing Thursday on the steppe of Kazakhstan. Touchdown of the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft occurred at 1343 GMT (9:43 a.m. EDT).

Three station fliers set for return to Earth

June 10, 2015 William Harwood

Three space station crew members packed up for a fiery return to Earth Thursday, wrapping up a nearly 200-day mission that was extended one month at the last minute because of a Russian rocket failure in April that threw a wrench into the lab’s crew rotation schedule.