TIME Announces A Year in Space Multimedia Documentary Series

5 minute read

On Friday, astronaut Scott Kelly will embark on a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station. To coincide with the event, TIME launches today the trailer of A Year in Space, a multi-part documentary series produced by TIME’s Red Border Films and directed by Shaul Schwarz and Marco Grob. Presented, from May 2015, across all TIME platforms—both print and digital— A Year in Space will offer exclusive access into the lives of Scott and Mark Kelly, NASA’s twin astronauts—from training sessions at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, Texas, all the way to the International Space Station (ISS), 250 miles in orbit. Visit time.com/space.

Your mind and your body have very different views on space. Your mind thinks it would be a fine and fun and thrilling place to be. Your body wants no part of it. The human organism was built for a one-g environment—and would just as soon stay there. Put it in zero-g for too long and everything comes unsprung: the heart goes slack, the bones get brittle, blood pressure goes awry, muscles wither, the eyes weaken.

Scott Kelly is about to face all that down. On March 27, the veteran of three previous space flights will take off for the International Space Station (ISS) and, along with cosmonaut Misha Kornienko, remain aloft for a full year. Meantime, Scott’s twin brother Mark, a veteran of four space flights, will remain on the ground. The two men with their matching backgrounds, similar health and identical genomes, will serve as the perfect controlled experiment to learn more about how the human body handles weightlessness—and what can be done to minimize the damage during long-term trips to Mars and elsewhere.

The staff at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab poses for a picture with Scott on Feb. 3.
Marco Grob for TIME
Following the successful completion of his final training in the pool, the staff at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston presented Scott with a cake wishing him well on the mission.
Following the successful completion of his final training in the pool, the staff at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston presented Scott with a cake wishing him well on the mission.Marco Grob for TIME

The Kelly mission is part of what is shaping up to be the most significant year in space in a long time. With the Juno probe on the way to Jupiter, the Dawn probe’s recent arrival at the dwarf planet Ceres, the New Horizons probe set for a first-ever rendezvous with Pluto in July, the Curiosity rover completing its third year on Mars and no fewer than three American manned spacecrafts—two being built by the private sector and one by NASA—moving closer to flight, the U.S. is at last reclaiming its fully preeminent position in space.

But it’s the story of Scott and Mark that will be the truly moving, truly human tale—and TIME will be covering it from all angles. Our A Year in Space project kicked off with our cover story on the Kellys in our Dec. 29, 2014 issue. It will continue on all of our platforms—web, tablet, mobile, magazine—until after Scott’s return in the spring of 2016.

As we did during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo days, TIME will be going into the lives and living rooms of American astronauts and their families. Our online coverage has begun already, with an exclusive trip into the 40-ft. depths of NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab—essentially a 6.2 million gal. (23.5 million liter) swimming pool—where fully space-suited astronauts train on a mock-up of the ISS.

We will continue with at least nine hours of interviews with Scott, his family, the girlfriend he’s leaving behind and the doctors who will be looking after him while he’s in orbit, and with 80 minutes of conversations with him aboard the ISS. TIME.com will feature regular video and story updates throughout the year and a feature-length, Red Border Films documentary at the end of the year.

The brothers have been there before—in wonderful and terrible ways. They have both known the thrill of being in space and the slight ache of wanting to be the one who’s flying when it’s the other brother’s turn. They’ve known the wonderful sense of connectedness that comes from being in space and being able to call home and discuss the experience with a person uniquely—almost surreally—able to understand it all. And they’ve known the pain of not having that brother close when needed—as when Mark’s wife, former Congresswoman Gabriel Gifford, was nearly assassinated when Scott was in space. “The one person who could have helped me most was off the planet,” Mark has said.

This year, Scott and Mark will, in a sense, be flying the same mission for the first time. Mark, having retired from NASA, may remain at home in Arizona, but the brothers will be working together to advance the far larger mission of helping the human species—moored to a single world in a universe full of them—slowly stretch its reach into the cosmos.

Jeffrey Kluger is Editor at Large for TIME magazine and TIME.com, overseeing coverage of science and human behavior. He is the author of nine books, including Apollo 13, upon which the 1995 movie was based.

Astronaut Scott Kelly
U.S. Astronaut Scott KellyMarco Grob for TIME
Cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko
Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail KornienkoMarco Grob for TIME
Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka
Russian Cosmonaut Gennady PadalkaMarco Grob for TIME
Russian Sokol suits, used for launch into orbit and reentry from space, are seen at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia on March 5, 2015.
Russian Sokol suits, used for launch into orbit and reentry from space, are seen at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia on March 5, 2015.Marco Grob for TIME
The spacesuit worn by Astronaut Scott Kelly is prepared for his final spacewalk training at NASA in Houston on Feb. 2, 2015. Kelly is slated to perform his first-ever spacewalk while on his yearlong mission.
The spacesuit worn by Astronaut Scott Kelly is prepared for his final spacewalk training at NASA in Houston on Feb. 2, 2015. Kelly is slated to perform his first-ever spacewalk while on his yearlong mission.Marco Grob for TIME
Divers check Scott Kelly's suit for leaks as he prepares for underwater training on in Houston on Feb. 2. Even though the spacesuit weighs more than Scott, due to the air inside it, he does not sink like a rock in the pool, but instead becomes neutrally buoyant, simulating weightlessness.
Divers check Scott Kelly's suit for leaks as he prepares for underwater training on in Houston on Feb. 2. Even though the spacesuit, which have been modified for use in the pool, weighs more than Scott, due to the air inside it, he does not sink like a rock in the pool, but instead becomes neutrally buoyant, simulating weightlessness.Jonathan Woods—TIME
Divers swim toward an underwater replica of the International Space Station in Houston on Feb 3, 2015. Astronauts train for spacewalks by wearing their spacesuit in the world's largest pool, at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston.
Divers swim toward an underwater replica of the International Space Station in Houston on Feb 3, 2015. Astronauts train for spacewalks by wearing their spacesuit in the world's largest pool, at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston.Jonathan Woods—TIME
Scott Kelly completes underwater training for his first ever spacewalk on Feb. 2, in Houston, Texas.
Scott Kelly completes underwater training for his first ever spacewalk on Feb. 2, in Houston, Texas.Marco Grob for TIME
Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Misha Kornienko and Astronaut Scott Kelly can be seen inside the Soyuz module during their final exams on March 5, 2015. The three men were tested on their skills and abilities ahead of the launch.
Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko and Astronaut Scott Kelly can be seen inside the Soyuz module during their final exams on March 5, 2015. The three men were tested on their skills and abilities ahead of the launch.Christina Clusiau for TIME

More Must-Reads From TIME

Write to Jeffrey Kluger at jeffrey.kluger@time.com