American astronaut Scott Kelly is back on Earth, ending his extended stay on the International Space Station. Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, who both spent most of the past year in space, landed at 11:26 p.m. ET in Kazakhstan. Cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, who arrived on the ISS last September, also returned with Kelly and Kornienko.Kelly was lifted from the capsule and placed in a seat to allow his body to readjust to the earth's gravity. Shortly after that, he and his Russian crew mates were taken to a tent and subjected to a range of tests of their vision, balance, strength and dexterity. The tests are in part designed to see how quickly a crew traveling to Mars might be able to begin work after landing on the Red Planet.Kelly will next travel back to Houston, Texas. After a series of additional medical tests, he says he's headed to his pool for a swim.Our earlier post:Here's a fun fact about long-duration space flight: There's no shower on board the International Space Station.
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