MOSCOW Nov 26 Russia and the United States have
chosen two International Space Station (ISS) veterans for the
first year-long mission to the orbiting laboratory, a test of
endurance that will help prepare for missions deeper into space.
Russian Mikhail Korniyenko and American Scott Kelly will
ride a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the station in the spring of
2015, Russian space agency Roskosmos said on Monday.
It would be the longest space flight by an American. Russian
cosmonaut Valery Polyakov holds the record for the longest spell
in orbit, a 438-day mission aboard Russia's Mir space station in
1994 and 1995.
The record for an American is held by Michael Lopez-Alegria,
who completed a 215-day mission aboard the International Space
Station in 2006-2007.
Most stints on the station, a $100 billion, permanently
staffed laboratory that orbits about 250 miles (400 km) above
Earth, have lasted no more than six months.
Doctors are particularly concerned about the effect of long
spells in space on bones, vision and the cardiovascular system.
"The goal of the year-long expedition aboard the orbital
laboratory is testing human body reactions to the harsh
conditions of space and the ability to adapt to them," Roskosmos
said in a statement on its website.
It would help reduce risks on future missions to the Moon's
orbit, the asteroids and eventually Mars, it said.
"The choice of participants in the year-long flight was hard
because there were many worthy candidates, but we chose the most
responsible," said Roskosmos head Vladimir Popovkin.
He said Kelly and Korniyenko, who were in separate ISS crews
in 2010-2011, were "selflessly loyal to the business of space".
Since the United States ended its space shuttle programme
last year, it has relied solely on Russia to fly astronauts to
the ISS at a cost of more than $60 million per seat.
But Russia's pioneering space industry has suffered
embarrassing and costly failures in the past two years. Prime
Minister Dmitry Medvedev met Popovkin and other senior officials
on Monday to discuss ways to improve the performance of
(Editing by Steve Gutterman and Tom Pfeiffer)