BAIKONUR: The capsule carrying an American and a Russian who are to spend a year away from Earth docked Saturday with the international space station.
Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are to spend 342 days aboard the orbiting laboratory, about twice as long as a standard mission on the station. The Soyuz space capsule, also carrying Russia’s Gennady Padalka for a six-month stay, docked about six hours after launching from Russia’s manned space facility in Kazakhstan.
Once the hatches are opened between the two craft after a long procedure, the three will enter the space station to join American Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov of Russia and Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, who have been aboard since late November.
The trip is NASA’s first attempt at a one-year spaceflight; four Russians have spent a year or more in space, all on the Soviet-built Mir space station.
The stay is aimed at measuring the effects of a prolonged period of weightlessness on the human body, a step toward possible missions to Mars or beyond.
