US-Russian crew blasts off for record-setting one-year International Space Station «ISS» flight

A Soyuz spacecraft has lifted off from the Baikonur space launch site, taking a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS). Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko and American Scott Kelly are set to beat the record of the longest space trip.

 Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly have started their record-breaking voyage to the ISS, accompanied by Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka. The spaceship Soyuz TMA-16 M lifted off from the Baikonur space launch facility, located in Kazakhstan, in the early hours of Saturday.

In six hours, the spaceship is set to dock to the ISS in an automatic mode. The new expedition ISS-43/44/45/46, lasting 342 days, will be welcomed by NASA’s Terry Virts, Roscosmos’ Anton Shkaplerov, and ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti.

 The historic mission is marked by the fact that Kelly has left an identical twin on Earth, retired astronaut Mark Kelly. Scientists will be able to study the effects of prolonged space travel on the human body in the NASA Twin Study, the first experiment of its kind.

 “This is a chance in a lifetime,” Craig Kundrot, the deputy chief scientist of Nasa’s Human Research Program, said. “In this case we’ve got two genetically identical individuals and we can monitor what kind of changes occur in Mark in an ordinary lifestyle and compare those to the changes that we see in Scott.”

Kornienko and Kelly are set to return to Earth in March 2016 after spending 342 days in space. Padalka will come back earlier, with a total of 878 days onboard the ISS throughout his career – thus breaking another record for the sum of days spent in space.

The Russian cosmonauts are planning to carry out 49 experiments, with almost half of them concerning the medical sphere, as well as one spacewalk. They are also bringing a Victory Banner and a small Russian national flag with them to celebrate Victory Day on May 9. The flag will be marked with an onboard stamp and then taken back to Earth.

RT

Maher Taki