Homecoming for 2 spacemen after year aloft: ‘We did it!’

The pair have been part of the One-Year Mission, a mission that is studying the affects of long-duration spaceflight, all in an effort to learn how our fragile human bodies will endure low-gravity living as well as other aspects of space travel, such as radiation.

When they touch down on Wednesday, they would have spent 340 days in space.

He spent 340 days in space, but the toughest times may still be ahead for NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.

Kelly is scheduled to return to Earth after spending more than 11 months aboard the aboard the International Space Station.

Kelly and his Russian roommate for the past year, Mikhail Kornienko, checked out of the International Space Station on Tuesday night, USA time.

The space agency will begin airing video of the return at 3:10 pm Eastern time, and Kelly will officially depart from the ISS about an hour later, Cosmopolitan reports.

Kelly photographed the first five sunrises of his waking day Tuesday, posting the pictures on Twitter, before quipping, “I gotta go!”

Scientists are hoping for more one-year subjects as NASA gears up for human expeditions to Mars in the 2030s.

Astronaut Scott Kelly is on his way back to Earth to end an unprecedented yearlong mission in space for NASA. To give you context, the average distance between the Earth and Mars is about 140 million miles, so Kelly could have potentially travelled there by now.

While in orbit, Kelly posted hundreds of photos, and we’ve got a selection here.

Amid final preparations to leave with Kornienko and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, Kelly transferred command of the station to USA astronaut Tim Kopra yesterday afternoon.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly will begin his descent back to Earth today, with a record-breaking accomplishment and maybe a claim to the title ‘Champion of Liquid Ping Pong in Space’.