Astronaut set to spend one year in space

There’s what to pack: How many changes of clothes do you bring?

Kelly says NASA supplies most of what he needs but he’s taking his own tool pouch, some sweatshirts and special shoes to use when he’s lifting weights.

“I bought a special kind of shoes I thought would be better for that,” Kelly said at a NASA briefing on Thursday.

Then there’s what to do for a year in space. You get a great view of Earth, so the scenery is amazing. But the space station orbits Earth about every 90 minutes, or about 16 times a day. Could get a little repetitive. So how do you keep from getting bored?

The mission is a first for NASA, but not for Russia. Between 1987 and 1995, four cosmonauts spent a year or more in space. And another Russian will be with Kelly for his yearlong mission: cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko.

Both men are space veterans. Kelly has flown on two shuttle missions and has already done two stints on the space station. In all, he’s logged more than 180 days in space. Kornienko has spent 176 days in space.

The two will ride to the space station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who is staying for six months. The trio will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 27.

CNN