Feb 22 2016

From The Space Library

Release M16-014 NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly Talks One-Year Mission in Final In-Space News Conference

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s final news conference from orbit will air live on NASA Television at 12:05 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 25.

The 30-minute news conference will take place less than a week before Kelly returns to Earth from the International Space Station, marking the completion of a 340-day mission. Media may ask questions from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston or Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as well as by phone.

To attend the briefing at Johnson, media must request credentials from the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25. To ask questions by phone, media must call the Johnson newsroom no later than 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25. Accreditation for international media is closed for this event.

All media accreditation requests for Kennedy must be submitted by 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 24 online at: [1]

All media representatives must present two forms of unexpired legal, government identification to access Kennedy. One form must include a photo, such as a passport or driver’s license. Questions about accreditation should be directed to Jennifer Horner at jennifer.p.horner@nasa.gov or 321-867-6598.

Kelly launched to the space station March 27, 2015, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is set to return on Tuesday, March 1. He will land in Kazakhstan at 11:27 p.m. (10:27 a.m. Kazakhstan time on March 2) with his one-year crewmate, cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, also of Roscosmos. Kelly will return to Houston’s Ellington Field on Wednesday, March 2.

After landing, Kelly will hold the record among U.S. astronauts for cumulative time in space, with 520 days. During their record-setting mission, Kelly and Kornienko participated in a number of studies to provide new insights into how the human body adjusts to weightlessness, isolation, radiation and the stress of long-duration spaceflight, which will include the Journey to Mars. Kelly’s twin brother, former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, participated in parallel twin studies on Earth to help scientists compare the effects on the body and mind in space.