(2 Mar 2016) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4025787
Astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth on Wednesday after an unprecedented year in space for NASA.
Their Soyuz capsule landed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning, ending a science-rich mission at the International Space Station that began last March and was deemed a steppingstone to Mars.
It was a triumphant homecoming for Kelly and Kornienko after 340 days in space. They checked out of the space station three-and-half hours earlier.
The pair travelled 144 million miles through space, circled the world 5,440 times and experienced 10,880 orbital sunrises and sunsets during the longest single spaceflight by an American.
Piloting the Soyuz capsule home for Kelly, 52, and Kornienko, 55, was the much fresher and decade-younger cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, whose space station stint lasted the typical six months.
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