Astronaut Scott Kelly preps to come back to Earth after his record-breaking year long stint on the ISS

Astronaut Scott Kelly preps for his ride home today after his record breaking year in space. Scott Kelly currently holds the U.S. record for most time spent in space (520 days) and most consecutive days spent in space by a United States astronaut (216 days)

Kelly’s year long stint in space is a part of an experiment conducted by NASA on long term effects of space on a human body. NASA hopes that this will shed some light as to what could happen when NASA sends astronauts on a 2-3 years long space expedition to Mars.

Astronaut Kelly will be subjected to a physical exam right after he lands in Kazakhstan in which NASA will analyse how an astronaut can perform simple tasks like “standing up from sitting on a seated position” and “walking over obstacles” along with more complex test like long term effects on eyesight, immune system, bone and muscle loss.

Astronaut Kelly is scheduled to return with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko to Earth on March 2, by that time he will have spent 521 total days living in space.

Watch Commander Scott Kelly’s interview as he reflects on his year in space.