UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

A Year in Space: 7 Mission Milestones for NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly — **Scott Kelly, shown here in the cupola of the International Space Station, is about to complete his yearlong mission in space.**
**Credit: NASA**

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is scheduled to return to Earth tomorrow (March 1) after spending 340 days aboard the International Space Station. He is the first American to live in space for such a long period of time.

Here are seven milestones of Scott Kelly's monumental year in space.

Blast off!

**The Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft launched on March 27, 2015, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carrying Scott Kelly, Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka.**
**Credit: NASA TV**

When Scott Kelly lifted off aboard a Russian Soyuz space capsule on March 27, 2015, bound for the International Space Station, he began a journey to do something that no American had done before: spend nearly a year in orbit.

Along with Russian crewmate Mikhail "Misha" Kornienko, who also stayed on board for just shy of a year, Kelly's role is to teach doctors back on Earth how the human body changes over long periods spent in weightlessness. Most data on the effects of spaceflight on humans come from six-month missions; one-year missions have not taken place in space since cosmonauts lived on the Mir space station in the 1990s.

"Misha and I are only one data point in this goal to have people live and work in space for longer periods, with the hopes of someday going perhaps to Mars," Kelly said during a preflight news conference in Russia. "But you've got to start somewhere, and I think this is a great start. And I'm proud to be a part of it."

Veggies in space

NASA astronauts Scott Kelly (right) and Kjell Lindgren (center) with Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui snack on freshly harvested, space-grown red romaine lettuce as part of the Veggie experiment on the International Space Station.
**Credit: NASA TV via collectSPACE.com**

As the character Mark Watney showed in the movie "The Martian"last year, astronauts will need to grow their own food to stay in space for long periods of time. Shipping supplies to other planets is just too expensive, and fraught with possible problems. Astronauts literally got a taste of growing food in space, thanks to the Veggie experiment on ISS.

In August 2015, Kelly was on hand when, for the first time, astronauts actually ate a vegetable — lettuce — grown in space. Kelly, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui were shown on video munching the "Outredgeous" red romaine lettuce. "Tastes good," Kelly remarked.

The next iteration of Veggie, using zinnias, became threatened by moldclose to the Christmas holidays. Kelly agreed to take over management of the experiment and ended up saving most of the plants, allowing flowers to bloom by January. "Yes, there are other life forms in space!" Kelly tweeted Jan. 16.

Spacewalks

The ISS is currently undergoing renovations to prepare the station to receive commercial spacecraft designed to carry humans. The renovations include changing the docking ports to accommodate SpaceX's Dragon and Boeing's CST-100. Kelly's role in spacewalking, however, was to make sure the station is in tip-top shape.

Kelly tackled three spacewalks, which occurred in October, November and December. The first spacewalk (with Kjell Lindgren) focused on long-term maintenance of the station, while the second saw Kelly and Lindgren fixing up the station's plumbing. In December, Kelly and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra manually freed the Mobile Transporter — a railcar that moves the station's robotic arm — after a stuck brake handle stopped the transporter from moving.

Kelly appeared relaxed and occasionally joked during the procedures. "Somebody did a really good job on this wire tie here — like for all eternity," he quipped during his November spacewalkwhile struggling to undo a wire tire.

Progress 59 re-supply failure

**The Progress 59 freighter burned up in Earth's atmosphere on May 7, 2015, nine days after suffering a serious malfunction shortly after launch.**
**Credit: NASA**

To stay provisioned in space, the ISS needs regular re-supplies from cargo spacecraft. Occasional failures do happen, however, such as what occurred with the Progress 59 craft that lifted off on April 28, 2015.

Russian controllers were unable to gain control of the craft, which was spinning far out of reach of its destination. It fell back to Earth in May, 2015, due to a failure in the third stage of its rocket.

Controllers were somewhat unsure of where it would land, but the incident was taken as a lesson learned. Future spacecraft may be equipped with retro-reflectors to make it easier to track them and predict where they will re-enter the atmosphere, according to officials from the European Space Agency.

SpaceX rocket explosion

**SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo spacecraft exploded shortly after liftoff on June 28, 2015. The Dragon craft was carrying supplies to the International Space Station.**
**Credit: NASA**

On June 28, 2015, a SpaceX rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded only a couple of minutes after launch. The 4,000 lbs. (1,814 kilograms) of lost cargo included food, supplies and science experiments for the station, such as a high-resolution camera for meteor observations. The cause of the explosion was later traced to a faulty strut.

The failure came after a catastrophic explosion of an Orbital Antares rocket in October 2014 (with the Cygnus cargo craft on top) and the Progress failure of April. NASA, however, said the station had enough slack in its supplies to stay provisioned for a while.

"We're good to the October time frame if no other vehicles show up," NASA ISS program manager Mike Suffredini said during a pre-launch press conference on June 26, 2015. Luckily for the astronauts, cargo flights made it successfully to the station before then, and no other failures have occurred since that time.

A birthday in orbit

Kelly celebrated an extra-special birthday in space on Feb. 21. The milestone is notable not only because he was in space at the time, but also because he shares the birthday with his twin brother, Mark.

Mark and Scott have both been in space before, and NASA saw a unique opportunity to see how the genes of a person change after extended stays in space. For the so-called "Twins Study," while Scott is performing experiments on himself up above, Mark remains on the ground doing identical procedures.

"Happy birthday to Scott Kelly, who is working 250 [miles/402 kilometers] above Earth, and Mark Kelly, who is helping with the Twins Study from our home planet," NASA wrote on Tumblr on the twins' birthday.

Back on Earth

**After 340 days in space, the most time spent in orbit by an American, Scott Kelly is scheduled to return to Earth on March 1, 2016.**
**Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls**

After a year doing science and spacewalks — as well as tending flowers and admiring the view — Kelly will arrive back on Earth on March 1. The extreme amount of time he spent in isolation had some people wondering if he would mind being there for so long, but Kelly emphasized repeatedly that it was a matter of focusing on one day at a time.

"On a six-month flight, your mindset is you're going to go up there, and you're going to be up there for a period of time, and you're going to come home," Kelly said in January 2015.

"When it's a whole year, I don't have that same perspective. It's almost like I feel like I'm just moving there and I'm not coming back. Or it's going to be so long that when I come back, it's almost like I never lived here maybe."

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

X-Files revealed: CIA releases top-secret UFO reports online

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has decided to release hundreds of X-files-like UFO documents on their website, a moment that UFO fans all over the world have been waiting for since the first sightings were noted. The CIA has declassified hundreds of documents detailing the agency’s investigations into UFOs in a move to make sure that things are easier for Mulder and Scully.

According to the agency’s website, it has released documents primarily from the late 1940s and 50s, which it holds in its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) UFO collection.

The images are among the clearest ever taken of supposed UFOs

“We’ve decided to highlight a few documents both sceptics and believers will find interesting,” the agency states.

The CIA used Twitter to encourage the UFO enthusiasts to “take a peek” at the declassified documents

In the past, the agency has often been panned by UFO conspiracy theorists for allegedly trying to cover up evidence of alien life from the general public. The agency for some reason has decided to upload never-before-seen photos and documents in PDF formats.

This picture taken above Minneapolis has never been explained

Among the CIA’s UFO X-Files is the sighting documented by New Jersey resident George Stock. On July 29, 1952 at about 4:30 p.m., Stock and his friend John H. Riley spotted a bizarre aircraft in Passaic approaching from the sky.

The story goes that Mr Stock ran inside to grab his camera before taking five photos of the UFO. He claimed it was sailing at about 200ft before flying off at high speed. The disc was described as solid and metallic with a transparent, domed top. It was reported to be a blue to grey colour, about ten metres wide and made no noise.

CIA UFO Files

According to theparanormalguide.com, which catalogues former UFO sightings, the shots received little attention at that time.

The blog said: “Considering these images of what may have been a UFO were so clear, they received very little attention, and for a good reason – the various agencies in control asked media outlets and the police to stop taking on reports and reporting UFO events, as they were coming in too fast to handle – news of UFOs were literally clogging up channels as 1952 saw a massive wave of sightings.”

The documents reveal that the CIA was not only interested in UFO sightings in the U.S. but also in England, Spain, North Africa and Germany. Another example is a mysterious photo taken above Sheffield in March 1962 showing what is said to be a fleet of dark-looking flying saucers. However, the grainy black and white photo has since been exposed as a hoax.

In spite of the authenticity of the uploaded CIA documents, the agency kept referring to Agents Mulder and Scully of the famous drama series The X-Files.

“Below you will find five documents we think X-Files character Agent Fox Mulder would love to use to try and persuade others of the existence of extraterrestrial activity,” wrote CIA in the blog where some of the documents were listed.

The files disclosed by CIA didn’t give any strong inference about the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrial life. When it comes to UFO conspiracies, the CIA is not the only federal agency under attack. Many UFO/alien conspiracy theories are popping up and NASA has been accused of back-to-back extraterrestrial evidence cover-ups related to its Mars missions as well.

In one of the photos taken by NASA’s space rovers on Mars in October 2015, UFO spotter and YouTube user, Paranormal Crucible, found what looked like the remains of a Buddha statue.

In November 2015, Paranormal Crucible also found a “drone-like” structure on Mars using one of the photos uploaded by NASA. This time, the drone-like conspiracy theory corresponded to the global premiere of the Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

If you are a UFO enthusiast, take a look at all the files here.