2 Astronauts Will Expand Envelope With 1-Year Spaceflight
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CAPE CANAVERAL (CBSMiami/AP) — NASA has been pushing hard to advance the time table in which they send humans into deep space.
Two men assigned to a one-year spaceflight say their upcoming mission will allow the world to explore the galaxy, or at least take the first big step.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will rocket into orbit from Kazakhstan in March. They will spend a year aboard the International Space Station.
At a news conference Thursday at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Kelly and Kornienko said they anticipate many scientific gains from their mission. They say scientists need to know more about the prolonged effects of space on humans, before astronauts embark on Mars expeditions lasting three years, round trip.
Kelly and Kornienko have been training for this mission for two years. It will set a U.S. space endurance record. The world record, already claimed by Russia, is 14 months for a single flight.
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