Scott Kelly: From Naval Aviator to Record-Breaking Astronaut

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be an astronaut? Scott Joseph Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American engineer, retired astronaut, and naval aviator whose career embodies dedication, perseverance, and a relentless pursuit of knowledge. His journey from an uninspired student to a record-breaking astronaut is a testament to the transformative power of inspiration and hard work. In October, retired astronaut Scott Kelly visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). TIME for Kids was there to hear about his experiences in space and to get the answer to that question.

Education and Early Career

Kelly's early academic life wasn't stellar. After graduating from West Orange Mountain High School in 1982, Kelly enrolled at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. During his first year, Kelly read The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, and was inspired to pursue a career in naval aviation. After his first year, Kelly transferred to State University of New York Maritime College, where he received a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (Navy ROTC) scholarship. During the summer after his first year, Kelly sailed aboard SUNY Maritime's training ship, Empire State V, and stopped in Mallorca, Hamburg, and London. Kelly received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the State University of New York Maritime College at Throggs Neck, New York, in 1987.

After graduation, Kelly was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy. He completed his initial flight school at NAS Pensacola, where he flew the T-34 Mentor propeller driven trainer plane, after which he was selected to fly jets. In 1988, he moved to Beeville, Texas, for jet training Naval Air Station Chase Field, where he trained on the T-2 Buckeye and the A-4 Skyhawk. He graduated as a naval aviator in 1989, and was assigned to fly the F-14 Tomcat. He reported to VF-101 at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, for initial F-14 training. Upon completion of this training in September 1990, he was assigned to VF-143, and deployed to the North Atlantic and Persian Gulf aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D.

Test Pilot School and Advanced Education

Kelly's pursuit of excellence led him to the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. He graduated from there in 1994. His classmates included his brother, Mark, and other future astronauts Alvin Drew, Lisa Nowak, and Stephen Frick. He graduated in June 1994 and was assigned to the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate at Patuxent River. One of his initial assignments was to investigate the F-14 crash that killed Kara Hultgreen. His assessment was to create a digital flight control system that would have saved Hultgreen's life. He also received a master’s degree in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1996.

Applying for NASA

In 1995, Kelly and his brother applied to NASA to become astronauts. The following year, Kelly sent his application to NASA to become an astronaut. He doubted that he would be accepted. He thought, “If I’m going to fail at something, I might as well just fail at something that I think I can’t achieve.” That’s what Kelly told the audience at UW. To his surprise, he landed an interview. His twin brother, Mark, did too. Scott and Mark Kelly began their astronaut training in August 1996. He and Mark were selected to become astronaut candidates in April 1996; the first relatives to be selected in NASA history. In July 1996, Kelly moved to Houston, and began training in Astronaut Group 16 at the Johnson Space Center.

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Early Spaceflights

Scott Kelly was accepted into the astronaut training program in 1996. He and several others headed to Houston, Texas, to learn to pilot a space shuttle. From 1999 to 2016, Kelly took part in four space missions. In March 1999, Kelly was assigned to STS-103 as a pilot aboard Discovery, under command of Curt Brown, on a mission to install new instruments and upgraded systems on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Discovery launched on December 19, 1999, and rendezvoused with the HST after 40 orbits. The STS-103 mission specialists conducted three EVAs to replace gyroscopes and a transmitter, and to install a new computer guidance sensor and recorder. On December 25, 1999, the crew celebrated the only Christmas holiday of the Space Shuttle in orbit with a reading by Curt Brown.

On his second trip, in 2007, he was the mission commander. That gave him the opportunity to fly the space shuttle Endeavour. After completing his assignment as a back-up member for ISS Expedition 5 in 2002, Kelly was assigned as commander of STS-118 aboard Endeavour. After the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, STS-118 was delayed until August 2007. STS-118 launched on August 8, 2007. During the launch, the orbiter was struck by nine pieces of foam from the external tank just as Columbia had been on its final, fatal mission. The underside of Endeavour was examined by cameras on the robotic arm and the ISS, and was assessed to not be dangerously damaged. The Shuttle successfully docked with the ISS on August 10. Endeavour's crew successfully added a truss segment, an external spare-parts platform, and a control moment gyroscope to the ISS. The mission was extended to 14 days while testing a new system that enabled docked shuttles to draw electrical power from the station. During the mission, four EVAs to install the new equipment were completed. The mission was ended a day early because of the approach of Hurricane Dean towards Houston.

Expedition 25/26

Kelly finished his third mission in 2011. It was a five-month stay on the International Space Station (ISS). In late 2007, Kelly was assigned to Expeditions 25 and 26. Kelly lifted off aboard Soyuz TMA-01M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:10 pm EDT on October 7, 2010, along with cosmonauts Aleksandr Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka. TMA-01M was the first launch of an updated model of the Soyuz spacecraft, and featured improved guidance, environmental control, and flight-control systems. Kelly, Kaleri, and Skripochka arrived at the ISS on October 9, 2010, and joined Commander Douglas H. During Kelly's time aboard the ISS, the crew supported about 115 scientific experiments, including an improved water-recycling machine, the Boiler Experiment Facility to test heat transfer in microgravity, and a Japanese experiment to research vegetable growth in microgravity. On December 17, 2010, Soyuz TMA-20 arrived at the station with the crew of Expedition 26/27 cosmonaut Dmitri Kondratyev, NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli. The crew of STS-133 aboard Discovery arrived at the station February 26, 2011. The crew of STS-133 performed two EVAs to replace a pump and install the Permanent Multipurpose Module.

While Kelly was on the ISS, his sister-in-law, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was shot in January 2011. Kelly returned to Earth on March 16, 2011.

One-Year Mission

NASA was intrigued by the idea of sending two people to space for an even longer period of time. The space agency then chose Kelly to set off on a 340-day mission to the ISS. He was accompanied by Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. The trip would become one of the longest times ever spent in space. NASA began planning for a year-long mission aboard the ISS following a Russian announcement for a similar mission. The primary goal of the year-long expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory was to better understand the effects of spaceflight on the human body.

In November 2012, Kelly was selected for a one-year mission to the ISS, but was medically disqualified the following day due to his vision worsening in microgravity. Kelly, Kornienko, and Gennady Padalka launched aboard Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:42 pm EDT on March 27, 2015. TMA-16M docked with the ISS at 9:36 pm EDT, and the crew joined the Expedition 43 crew of commander Terry Virts and flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti. On December 15, 2015, NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra, ESA astronaut Timothy Peake, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko joined Expedition 46 as flight engineers after Soyuz TMA-19M docked with the ISS. On December 21, 2015, Kelly and Kopra performed an unscheduled EVA to release the brake handles on the Mobile Transporter rail car for the Canada Arm 2, which had unexpectedly stopped when it was remotely commanded by the flight controllers. After the successful repair of the Mobile Transporter, the ISS crew was resupplied on December 23, 2015, by the Progress 62 spacecraft. On January 15, 2016, Kopra and Peake performed another EVA and successfully replaced a voltage regulator, but were forced to return early after water began forming inside of Kopra's helmet. On January 8, 2016, Kelly appeared in the thank-you note segment of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, with the first ever thank-you note from space. Russian cosmonauts Malenchenko and Volkov conducted an EVA on February 3, 2016, to retrieve experiments and photograph the exterior portions of the Russian segment of the station. On March 1, 2016, Kelly transferred command of the ISS to Kopra, and returned to Earth alongside Korniyenko and Volkov aboard Soyuz TMA-18M.

Twins Study

The main purpose of the mission was to study how the human body responds to a long space flight. Kelly went to space. His brother, Mark, stayed on Earth. Since they are twins and have the same DNA, scientists were able to compare the two. This would help researchers understand the effects of long space missions on the body. In addition to the biological tests conducted on all astronauts on the station, Kelly also participated in comparative study on the effects of spaceflight with his identical twin Mark as the ground control subject. Kelly's cognitive, and genetic traits were measured before and after the flight. Within several months after returning to Earth, Kelly had adapted to living in gravity.

Space weakens your bones and muscles, because your body doesn’t have to use them much in low gravity. That’s why astronauts work out for at least two hours a day. Eyesight is also greatly affected by space travel. There’s still a lot to learn about the effects of space flights on the body.

Retirement and Post-Flight Activities

On March 12, 2016, Kelly announced his retirement from NASA, effective April 1, 2016. On November 20, 2016, Kelly was appointed United Nations Champion for Space by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), to assist in raising awareness of UNOOSA outreach and activities. In November 2017, a memoir by Kelly was released, called Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery. On June 19, 2018, Kelly spoke at the UNISPACE50+ conference in Vienna, expressing his views on the possibilities of human potential:"After spending a year in space, I was absolutely inspired that if we can dream it, we can do it…and most importantly, if we work as a team, because teamwork makes the dream work. Navy, Kelly retired from active duty on June 19, 2012, after 25 years of naval service.

Personal Life

Scott Kelly married Leslie Yandell on April 25, 1992. They had two children together. They divorced in 2010. In July 2018, Kelly married Amiko Kauderer, who works as a public affairs officer for NASA. In 2007, Kelly was successfully treated for prostate cancer.

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Honors and Recognition

Kelly received an honorary Korolev Diploma in 1999 and an Honorary Doctorate of Science degree in 2008. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine in December 2014.

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