spacetoday.net: NASA, Roscosmos select crew for year-long ISS mission

Posted: Wed, Nov 28, 2012, 6:39 AM ET (1139 GMT)
ISS illustration (NASA)

NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced Monday they had selected the crew that would perform a year-long mission on the International Space Station in 2015. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will fly to the ISS in the spring of 2015 and remain on the station for a full year, returning in the spring of 2016. The year-long stay, announced earlier this year, is intended to allow scientists to better understand the effects of long-term exposures to the space environment, particularly weightlessness, in planning for future deep space missions. The mission will have the side benefit of freeing up seats on Soyuz spacecraft traveling to and from the station that Russia can sell to commercial customers; Roscosmos has already announced a deal with space tourism company Space Adventures to fly singer Sarah Brightman to the station on a future mission.