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Watch: NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returns to Earth after almost a year

Speed News Desk | Updated on: 14 February 2017, 5:51 IST

The world is rejoicing the homecoming of American astronaut Scott Kelly as he returned to Earth on Wednesday after completing a year-long exceptional mission for NASA, with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko who was his companion in the entire space journey. The pair landed in the desolate and frozen Kazakhstan after checking out of the International Space Station three and a half hours earlier.

Kelly and Kornienko's implausible space journey, that began last March, ended today as their Soyuz capsule parachuted onto the central Asian steppes. Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, who piloted the craft, landed along with the Kelly and Kornienko after completing six months in space.

Both streaked back to Earth after spending 340 consecutive days in space. They circled the world 5,440 times and travelled 144 million miles through space and experienced 10,880 orbital sunrises and sunsets during the longest single spaceflight by an American. Kelly also shared some of the most fascinating and breathtaking pictures during this one-year stint in space.

Kelly took off after tweeting his last sunrise from space.

Scientists are hoping for more one-year subjects as NASA looks ahead to Mars trips.

The following video shows them undocking from the station and heading home:

While this one shows their epic arrival:

First published: 2 March 2016, 1:28 IST