Russian and American flew to the ISS for a year – BBC Russian

• March 27, 2015

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Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko will remain at the station for a year, and Gennady Padalka (pictured right ) will return to Earth after six months

American Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko began their journey into orbit to begin a year’s stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The crew also Russian Gennady Padalka, who will hold the plant in the normal period of six months.

Scientists hope to obtain new data on the effects of microgravity on the human body. Without such data it is impossible to conduct operations beyond the near-Earth space, for example, to Mars and asteroids.

On board the ISS, this watch can be the longest in the history of the station, which orbits the Earth at an altitude of 400 km.

Launch vehicle” Soyuz FG “with manned spacecraft” Soyuz TMA-16M “, carrying the new crew, was launched to the ISS from Baikonur.

Start took place at 19:42 GMT on Friday. Six hours later, the capsule will dock with the ISS.

At the station “Mir” such long watch were not uncommon

The Russian cosmonauts in the past times higher than one year in orbit in the years of the Russian station “Mir”.

Valery Polyakov spent 437.7 days in space in 1994-95 . Another three Russian cosmonauts spent more than a year at the station.

However, since our knowledge of how to counteract the negative effects of microgravity, strongly rooted; scientists expect that Kelly and Kornienko will return to Earth in much better physical shape than their predecessors.

The specially designed diet and exercise program now prevents significant loss of bone density and muscle atrophy suffered by inhabitants of space stations in the past.

However, there are other health risks that are still poorly understood, for example, the effects of the space environment on the immune system, as well as vision.

Microgravity can lead to damage of dangerous

There are concerns that the redistribution of fluids in the body caused by microgravity leads to increased intraocular pressure, which can lead to injury of the optic nerve.

Of particular interest is the fact that Scott Kelly – identical twin of Mark Kelly, who was himself an astronaut and retired in 2011.

Doctors will be able to study these two people simultaneously – on earth and in space. The theory of relativity predicts that Scott Kelly is old for a year for a few microseconds less than its twin in the world.