--- title: Scott Kelly's Daughter: I Gave My Dad a Giant Bear Hug description: Scott Kelly's daughter talks about her dad's return from a year in space canonical: https://time.com/4255412/scott-kellys-return/ author: Charlotte Kelly article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-11T15:31:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:05.169Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Astronaut's Daughter: I Gave My Dad a Giant Bear Hug og:description: Scott Kelly's daughter talks about her dad's return from a year in space og:url: https://time.com/4255412/scott-kellys-return/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf65d0ae1a2c8a32a/6987ee88cd1bba4a226f9514/150505_charlotte_tout.jpg?branch=production&width=462&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 462 og:image:height: 260 og:image:alt: 150505_charlotte_tout og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Astronaut's Daughter: I Gave My Dad a Giant Bear Hug twitter:description: Scott Kelly's daughter talks about her dad's return from a year in space twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf65d0ae1a2c8a32a/6987ee88cd1bba4a226f9514/150505_charlotte_tout.jpg?branch=production&width=462&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Astronaut's Daughter: I Gave My Dad a Giant Bear Hug > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=8f40dfbd-11a4-4af8-b376-f62061f7b35d&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko Return To Earth After One Year In Space [Watch (HLS stream): Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko Return To Earth After One Year In Space](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TjdGegib.m3u8) (4:07)  _Published 2016-03-02_ by [Charlotte Kelly](https://time.com/author/charlotte-kelly/) ## Charlotte Kelly Mar 11, 2016 3:31 PM UTC  Scott Kelly and Charlotte Kelly Scott Kelly and Charlotte Kelly Courtesy Virginia Beach City Public Schools by [Charlotte Kelly](https://time.com/author/charlotte-kelly/) ## Charlotte Kelly Mar 11, 2016 3:31 PM UTC I am an average sixth grader who goes to school every day and likes to hang out with my friends on the weekends. I love to read, play video games, draw and listen to music. I am pretty much like any other kid, except my dad just happens to pretty popular right now. For the past year, he has helped me with homework and he even listened to my tween-age stories—all over a secure phone connection from the International Space Station to my living room in Virginia Beach. He is an American astronaut who just finished living and working on the International Space Station for a year. Scott Kelly is many things to many people, but to me, he is just my dad! My dad came back to Earth last week, and I went to Houston to see him. When I first hugged him, I could only give him a half-hug. Once I saw an opportunity, I rushed back over to him to give him a giant bear hug. One of the first things he said to me was, “you got bigger,” and I find that funny since he did, too! I was so happy to see my dad that I wasn’t able to stop smiling. He is just my dad, and we all knew that my long weekend away from school would soon come to an end. He is pretty strict when it comes to my grades and not missing too many days of school. I don’t mind, since I have grown up seeing what hard work and studying can do for a person. My spring break is coming up soon, and I can’t wait to hang out with him. _TIME chronicled Scott Kelly’s year-long mission for a documentary series,_ [_A Year in Space_](http://time.com/space-nasa-scott-kelly-mission/)_._ ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] And getting a quick look, now a live view inside of the station. And there you can see Scott Kelly on the right, Sergey Volkov in the middle and Mikhail Korniyenko on the left. They're getting ready to climb into their Soyuz craft and close the hatches. In just a few minutes Definitely a pretty significant moment for the departing year- long crew members, who have been on board the International Space Station since March 27th of last year. So, obviously, very big steps for them to now depart what's been their home for the last, roughly, 12 months, and now get ready to make their way back down to Earth. Visiting vehicle officer reporting team telemetry dash closed at 3: 43 PM central time, 4: 43: PM eastern, while the station is flying just about 252 statued miles to the north of Malaysia. Undocking has occurred, 7: 02 PM central time, it's 8: 02 PM eastern time All the stations flying just over the Eastern part of Mongolia. [ UNKNOWN ], Scott Kelly, Sergei Volkov, on their way home. As you can see, initial rate of departure very slow back in the wait, only one tenth of a meter per second. It's gonna continue at this pace until it's about 50 feet away from the International Space Station. At which point it will execute the first of two separation burns, and the first separation burn occurring. The visiting vehicle officer here in Houston confirming the second burn has begun. You can see the orbiting laboratory in In full view. It takes right around 3 hours and 24 minutes from undocking to landing to occur. The pair in their year long mission will have completed right around 5, 440 orbits of the Earth in that distance traveling Over 143 million miles around our globe. Coincidentally a journey to Mars would be right around 140 million miles, as this is a mission dedicated towards improving humanity's knowledge of how our bodies change in space to continue to prepare us for that journey. So again at this point, the de- orbit burn underway. The Soyuz TMA- 18M spacecraft, the burn 4 minutes, 49 seconds in planned duration. Visiting vehicle officer reporting the telemetry, everything looks good, everything continuing to function as expected with the Soyuz vehicle's thrusters for this 4 minute, 49 second burn. And the visiting vehicle of start here mesh control Heusen. Reporting the burden complete and getting confirmation front he visiting vehicle officer that the separation of modules has occurred. A confirmation coming right at the top of the hour 10: 00 PM Central Eleven pm Eastern time, and so at this point the Soyuz craft descending under parachutes. And now getting reports in from the field that SAR teams, the search and recovery teams do have visual of the capsule. And we just got our confirmation the capsule landed at 10: 26pm Central time, 11: 26 PM eastern time. That's Sergei [ INAUDIBLE ] the Soviet commander having completed his third flight in to space. Scott Kelly back on mother earth after 340 days in space Dan. Thumbs up. And we've got a great view of him now. The Folks here in Mission Control Houston letting out a very big cheer and we're seeing a big smile from Scott Kelly there. And back over at the capsule we can see Mikhail Kornienko, the other one- year crew member, outside the capsule, getting ready to get carried over as well. So again, there you have it. All three crew members safely out of their Soyuz craft. Mikhail Kornienko there on the left, Sergey Volkov in the center, and on the right NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, back on Earth after 340 days in space. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4255412/scott-kellys-return/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4255412/scott-kellys-return/"},"headline":"Astronaut's Daughter: I Gave My Dad a Giant Bear Hug","datePublished":"2016-03-11T15:31:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:56:05.169Z","description":"Scott Kelly's daughter talks about her dad's return from a year in space","url":"https://time.com/4255412/scott-kellys-return/","keywords":["Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf65d0ae1a2c8a32a/6987ee88cd1bba4a226f9514/150505_charlotte_tout.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Kelly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-kelly/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf65d0ae1a2c8a32a/6987ee88cd1bba4a226f9514/150505_charlotte_tout.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"150505_charlotte_tout","caption":"Scott Kelly and Charlotte Kelly","creditText":"Courtesy Virginia Beach City Public Schools","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4255412/scott-kellys-return/","name":"Astronaut's Daughter: I Gave My Dad a Giant Bear Hug"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko Return To Earth After One Year In Space","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TjdGegib/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-03-02T22:11:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TjdGegib.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4255412/scott-kellys-return/","duration":"PT4M7S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4255412/scott-kellys-return/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```