Soyuz spacecraft docks at ISS for year-long mission

Russia's Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko blasts off from the launch pad at Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome early on March 28, 2015. - AFP

 “Scott Kelly’s mission is critical to advancing the administration’s plan to send humans on a journey to Mars,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said.   “We’ll gain new, detailed insights on the ways long-duration spaceflight affects the human body.”