In the solar system in our universe . Scott i think thats our future learning to live and work in space, on the moon, mars, and someday possibly beyond our solar system. Beyound a year in space was made possible in part by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Scott kelly i got misha behind me. Hes waking up, too. [laughs] Mikhail Kornienko early morning. [laughing] scott a year is a long time. Its a long time to be in space. It is not an easy place to live for that period of time. Im done. [laughs] miles obrien going the distance to a year is significant, because were talking about, you know, time frames that would get you to mars. Scott i even said to misha, about halfway through the flight, h, if we were going to mars, wed be arriving right now. Thats good. Mark kelly my brother went in there knowing full well, hey, this is a big challenge. You know, where he said this has been an incredible experience. Scott oh, man. Mark i think he was also ready for the experience to come to an end. Jeffrey kluger returning from space under a parachute has never been a precise business. You need the largest, emptiest expanse of nothing to aim for. For the americans, this has always meant the atlantic and pacific oceans. For the russians, it means the vast, desolate expanse of kazakhstan. [engine rumbling] scott i would like to relinquish command of the International Space station to my friend and colleague here, tim kopra. Nasa reporter on the soyuz craft, Sergey Volkov sits at the center seat. To his left, nasas scott kelly, and then that leaves in the right seat Mikhail Kornienko. [woman speaking russian] the oneyear crew members will have completed over 143 million miles around our globe. Coincidentally, a journey to mars would be right around 140 million miles. Woman on radio 3, 2, 1. [men speaking russian] woman over radio cc7 is illuminated. Copy. [toasting in russian] [laughing] [man speaking russian on radio] Amiko Kauderer youre confident. Were gonna land, and its gonna be great. But you know that theres always things that we just dont really talk about, but theyre back there. Theyre, theyre back in your mind. There is a time the soyuz capsule is coming back through the atmosphere that we lose comm, and no one knows where the capsule is exactly. Scott theres fire all around your head. It gets hot in there, and its crazy. Nasa reporter all of the search and recovery helicopters are on their way to the landing zone. [beeping] scott right before the chute opens is when you start really hearing the air outside, really hitting the atmosphere hard. When it opens, it definitely gets your attention. [rumbling] feels like youve kind of lost control. [rumbling] [clattering] [radio chatter] nasa reporter the sar teams do have visual of the capsule, soyuz craft descending under parachutes. Search and recovery forces moving in on the russian mi8 helicopters, as well as allterrain vehicles. [applause and cheering] nasa reporter all the recovery personnel from nasa and roscosmos converging out there in kazakhstan around the capsule. [men speaking russian] [breathing deeply] scott the crisp coldness of the air is quite refreshing. Not only fresh, but not space station smell to it. [laughs] kluger the 340 days scott kelly and Misha Kornienko spent in space is less than 50 of what an even brief mission to mars would be. [man speaking russian] the oneyear mission will not end with scott and Misha Kornienkos landing. They will be studied closely and in depth for the next year. Scott air is great. I dont know why you guys are all bundled up. Kluger thats knowledge that will enable us to protect the next generation of people who will be the generation that will return to deep space. Scott when i became an astronaut, we were the class that was gonna go to mars. I never actually thought that was a realistic thing. But the most recent astronaut class could be. I hope they are. Astronaut right here . Photographer all right, everybody move closer together. Everybody smile for me. [laughs] jessica meir i remember the first time that we put on this blue flight suit, and thats kind of this iconic image that id always seen growing up. You take that step back and think, im actually an astronaut. Uh, the bladders kind of catching behind my heel there. Man you want to pull it back out and start again . Jessica uh, no, i think its gonna they might call us astronauts now, but we havent even gone to space yet. Man you slide in there easily. Thats awesome. Jessica the astronaut candidate training period takes about two years. Yeah, then they actually stop calling you an astronaut candidate, and they call you a real astronaut. Man lights on one. Jessica they dont really want to flatter us with that title when we first get here. We have to kind of prove ourselves first. The nbl is the neutral buoyancy lab. And that is what nasa really came up with as the closest approximation toward how we can train for spacewalks. I am in position. Man you guys are fast. [jessica laughs] and, tom, youre headed over to esp2. Tom ok. Man and, jessica, youre headed over the top. Jessica ok, copy. Thank you. [splash] kluger we have been looking for and training astronauts about since 1957, 1958. Miles obrien the Space Program began with top guns. Almost all of them had several sorties in combat scenarios, flying fast jets, flying them higher. Kluger what you needed were people who knew more than anything else about flying unproven vehicles in unexplored places. [explosion] [crash] obrien this was in the heat of the cold war. This was, uh, you know, sputnik had launched, and the u. S. Was in a frenzy to catch up. Victor glover the time they were selected in, socially, in this country, was very different. They were all guys, and they were all about the same age. [applause] you may not have had a whole lot of folks like me that even had an opportunity to apply. Announcer 3, 2, 1. [indistinct announcement] astronaut roger. The clock is operating. Were underway. [crackling] jessica oh, there it goes. Victor the most overwhelming feeling when i think about that legacy is just how awesome it is to be a part of it, you know. Obrien compare the mercury 7 to class 21. I mean, really. Victor there is a reason that they picked us. And i think personality and the psychological screening has obviously become more important. [engine starts] the t38s enable us to do what we call spaceflight readiness training. Victor on radio confirm he said taxi to 17 . Jessica he did say 17. Victor ok. Jessica we have to Work Together as a team and make quick decisions. If we make the wrong decision, our lives can really depend on it. [roaring] nasa. [indistinct] up to one 6,000, direct. [indistinct] victor if we head toward mars, youre gonna be away from the planet for a while. [roaring] jessica you want to make sure youre there with people that you get along with well, and you know how to deal with their idiosyncrasies. But its probably going to be a bond that really will last, you know, for the rest of your life. Victor all right, 2,000 feet. Here we go. I love breaking over the water. Coming left. [cheering and applause] scott you got bigger mark shes almost as big as sammy. You sore . A little bit . Scott yeah. A little bit. Terry virts hows the dizziness . Scott a little dizzy. Man does it feel like a year . Scott uh, yeah. [laughing] [applause] scott oh over a year. [slap] this is crazy. Oh. Man that feels good. Amiko welcome home back to earth. Scott you know, ive served the government for 30 years. Amiko well, i have a towel. Scott and i feel very strongly about space. I think its important. I would never rule out flying in space again, but i think its probably unlikely. [typing] jessica sometimes people ask, why were you interested in becoming an astronaut now . I thought nasa closed. A lot of people really had that perception, when the Space Shuttle retired, that we werent even flying in space anymore. There are only about 45 active astronauts right now, and so its still a little bit crazy for me to, to believe that, that im actually one of them. But my heart was really in the biological sciences. So thats what really led me to my other career, my previous career as a scientist. For my phd, i studied the physiology of organisms in extreme environments. So, i became interested in an animal called the barheaded goose. I raised twelve goslings. This is the species of goose that migrates twice a year over the tallest mountains of the planet. And in doing so, they experience oxygen levels that are only about a half of what we experience here at sea level. How do they really power that when there isnt that much oxygen to extract from the air up there . There are a lot of parallels to the work i did as a physiologist that hopefully ill be able to start contributing to the Human Spaceflight Program as well. Woman ooh, maya, will you get the cabbage, the purple cabbage behind you . Its on the bottom shelf. [laughing] victor you know, this job is risky. And while we go through painstaking efforts to minimize those risks, if we head toward mars, you take risk. I need you to practice good knife handling, ok . But you know, i mean, that space is better left with just, its uncertain and who knows . So why stress . Good job, team, good job good job. [jet roaring] when you have reached a point in your professional and personal journey where you dont really want to give up that current situation, thats probably about when nasas looking for you. Man whoo [roaring] victor i joined the navy while i was in college. I graduated and went to officer candidate school, learned to fly. I flew the f18. My first squadron, i took part of Operation Iraqi freedom, and i flew a couple dozen missions in combat there. Thats what i was focused on, is, is being a co of a fighter squadron. The navy had invested quite a lot of time in me, and my career in the navy was very special to me, is very special to me. And so i absolutely was not looking forward to walking away from that. It was a bittersweet moment to be able to come here. Hey, mr. Dickson. Mr. Dickson hows it going . Victor good, how you doing . Mr. Dickson doing all right. Victor but it was an opportunity that you just cant refuse. Here we go. Here. This is cool. Never been across this line. Jessica orion is a new spacecraft that nasa is building right now. And it is the spacecraft that we will fly humans in in order to go back to the moon, to mars, any kind of deep space mission. It looks comfy. Victor is it bigger than a soyuz . Jessica absolutely. Jules schneider it looks the same as the apollo capsule, but when you compare what was on apollo and what we have, its just completely different. Nujoud merancy orion is a very key part of the ultimate architecture, which is the safe way for the crew to get to space, off the earth, and back home again. The orion capsule is about the volume of two minivans. What you can do in that space is you can take the four crew safely to and from space easy, but it also serves as sort of a mini habitat. Jessica nasa is very much on what we call a journey to mars. The space launch system is the rocket that will launch the orion capsule. Kluger it will have more lift than the rockets that went to the moon. Man 3, 2, 1. Fire. [boom] victor that things gonna go farther than any humanrated vehicle has ever gone. [pop] [splash] and were gonna fly people in it. Maybe one of us. Jules hopefully. Victor hopefully, yeah. This is real. This is not a powerpoint drill. [roaring] kluger we are now passing on this torch to the next generation of people who will be the generation going beyond lowearth orbit. Going to deep space. Going to mars. Scott coming back, it was harder than i thought. Its not just you readapting to life on earth; its about the people that are important to you on earth readapting to life on earth with you back. I wouldve paid like 100 for this sandwich in space. If someone wouldve floated this in the middle of the module, there wouldve been a riot. Amiko mmhmm. I hate to use the term that, you know, we just picked up right where we left off, because we certainly didnt, but yet it just feels like home to me. Just being next to him when i hadnt had that for an entire year. It doesnt feel odd, awkward. It feels, it feels just right, actually. Hey, lets sit down and eat dinner. Mark all right, so how about i propose a toast . After 500 billion miles traveling around the planet at the speed of light, and 340 days in space. And how many gallons of your own urine drank . Scott well, its not my urine. Its everybodys urine. [laughter] mark so its great, great, great to have you back on earth safely and on time. Woman cheers. Woman welcome home. Man welcome home. [glasses clinking] victor if were going to send someone on a mission that could be 500 days, then we need to know that when you get back, that youre gonna be healthy. Any opportunity that we have to find out what a human is gonna go through being in space for a year, we needed to learn from scotts mission. Scott gravity, uh, definitely gives you a beatdown when you get back. My joints, my muscles are really, really stiff and sore. And my skin you know, my back and the back of my arms and my legs everything that touches any kind of surface just became completely like, inflamed, like, um, almost like a, uh, hives. And it was simply because, you know, my skin had not really touched anything for a year. You have clothes on, but the clothes really are just kind of lightly brushing against you. It was almost like an allergic reaction to any kind of pressure. And that lasted for, i dont know, like a week. Kluger we dont know what the longterm biomedical risks are when you spend a year in space. Scott i also had like flulike symptoms. Achy, confused, delirious such that if i hadnt been in space for a year and didnt know where this was coming from, i wouldve went to the emergency room. My feet still bother me some. I didnt walk on em for a year. [laughs] mark ooh, this is pretty interesting. This is what your toe looks like after a year in space. This is pretty disgusting. Well, my brother called me up and said, hey, you know, one of his space station science people. Man how are you doing . Mark pretty good, yeah. They started floating the idea around about doing some studies because we are identical twins. He thinks im my brother. [man laughs] so that way i can get in. Otherwise id have to pull out my id. And unfortunately, its expired. When we were little, we had like our own secret language. And we did almost everything together. You know, i remember laying in bed one time in the morning and talking to my brother about how we were gonna build an airplane in the backyard. You know, we, just at five or six years old, we figured, like, we have the skill to do this. Obviously, we didnt. We didnt get very far with the airplane, or later with the spaceship. Last time i did this, somebody was going out the hatch. Photographer could you stand right here and look at him, please . Christopher mason the twin studys an extraordinary opportunity. Working with twins gives you a perfect genetic experiment. As a geneticist, i wish everyone had a twin on earth or in space, but in this case, we were just lucky. Kluger two men with identical genomes, identical careers. You send one man to space for one year. Scott i just did my saliva samples. [beep] saliva bag number 2. [beep] kluger you track the other man living an earthly life for that same one year. Subtract the differences. Thats what space did. Scott these are ice bricks to keep our samples cold when we return em back to earth. So were clear. John charles by analyzing the samples that have come back from the space station, we hope to understand where spaceflight has its most fundamental effects on astronauts. Kluger this will be an experiment that will go on in depth for a year, and in further research forever, for the life of both astronauts. Woman and close your eyes. Mason in this study, we actually will be examining every aspect you can possibly look at so far in physiology. Mark do some mris and ultrasounds. They did a standup mri yesterday. It was like torture. Woo you know, we figured out ive spent 40 hours in that machine. I have to give urine and stool samples. Heres this. Thats done. One of my favorite things to do in the world collect one of those samples. Scott i got to go do some science in the bathroom. Ill be right back. Mark so what are we looking at there on my eyeball . Woman your retinal artery and vein. Mark hows it look . Woman looks like the eye of an american hero, sir. Mark as long as it looks better than my brothers eye. His is probably, after a year in space, its probably all shriveled up and decaying. Woman blink, blink. Scott yeah, you dont want to get to mars and be, be blind. That wouldnt be good. [crinkling paper] i did this so many times in space, its not even funny. Man so, uh, does the blood still flow the same way in space . Scott uh, no. Fluid behaves differently. Man does it come faster or slower . Scott uh, i dont know. [laughs] man is that enough light . Scott yeah. There we go. They have more Genetic Information on my brother and i than they do of any other people. Ever. Mark probably take 30 tubes of blood from me this morning. Man ok, squeeze just a couple times again. Thats plenty. Just like weve done it before. Scott man, thats a lot of tubes. Man youre gonna lose a couple pounds here. Scott if you do it yourself in space, it hurts less than when someone else does it. And it also saves time. Man we actually used a guide, there was a guide online for, like, intravenous drug users. Like, junkies have this handbook that they built for themselves on how to stick themselves scott and thats where you got the. Heres how you stick a needle in your vein, per the experts. Mason in my laboratory, we study the effects of space travel at the very finegrain genetic level. At the dna level, were looking for mutations, maybe from radiation. Out in space, youre gonna be, you know, subject to the slings and arrows of radioactive particles from the sun and deep space. Lisa nip these particles literally break apart your dna. Its not something you feel immediately. Scott you know, my radiation, the amount of radiation i got in, uh, in space for a year is significant. Nip if you are constantly bombarded with radiation, your body ends up not being able to cope with that, and thats when cancer happens. Scott now, if that actually happens, then that was a pretty big risk i took. Kluger astronauts who are going to deep space have a significantly higher risk than astronauts who are orbiting the earth. Obrien when you go out there, theres really nothing to stop radiation from penetrating your body, and you, you know, what can you do . Charles one option is to go really, really fast, minimizing the amount of time youre exposed to the deep space radiation environment. Unfortunately, really, really fast means new propulsive technologies that we dont have yet. They are in the realm of science fiction. Star trek and its warp drive is a good exa