Scott Kelly (astronaut)
Scott Kelly, an American astronaut and naval aviator, rode a Soyuz TMA-16M rocket off the pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:42 in the afternoon, Eastern time, on the 27th of March 2015. Most space travelers expect to come home after a few months. Kelly was strapped in for a far longer stay, alongside the Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and a third crewmate who would leave much sooner. Their destination was the International Space Station, and the plan was to remain there for close to a year. Behind that single launch sit several questions. What had a boy from a family of New Jersey police officers done to earn such a seat? What does a person carry into orbit after years of flying jets off carrier decks, and what do the people on the ground want to learn from him? And why did a twin brother, standing on Earth, matter so much to the science?
Scott Joseph Kelly was born on the 21st of February 1964 in Orange, New Jersey, together with his identical twin, Mark. Their mother, Patricia, and their father, Richard, both worked as police officers, and the family settled in West Orange. The Kellys are of Irish descent. Scott and Mark finished at West Orange Mountain High School in 1982, and during those school years Scott also worked as an emergency medical technician in Orange and in Jersey City.
At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a first-year student named Kelly read The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe's book about test pilots and the first astronauts. It pointed him toward naval aviation. After that first year he moved to the State University of New York Maritime College, where a Navy ROTC scholarship paid his way. Over two summers he sailed on the college training ship, Empire State V, and on the first voyage the ship called at Mallorca, Hamburg and London. He rose to become student battalion commander of the school's Navy ROTC detachment, and in 1987 he graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in electrical engineering. He would later add a Master of Science degree in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee.
With his commission as an ensign in the United States Navy, Kelly began flight school at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where he flew the T-34 Mentor, a propeller-driven trainer. His record there earned him a place in the jet pipeline. In 1988 he moved to Beeville, Texas, and to 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 the F-14 Tomcat. Initial Tomcat training took place with squadron VF-101 at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia, and he finished it in September 1990. He then joined VF-143 and deployed to the North Atlantic and the Persian Gulf aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In January 1993 the Navy sent Kelly to its Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. His classmates included his brother Mark and three other future astronauts: Alvin Drew, Lisa Nowak and Stephen Frick. He graduated in June 1994 and joined the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate. One of his first jobs was to look into the F-14 crash that killed Kara Hultgreen. His conclusion was that a digital flight control system could have saved her life. That finding sped up the system's development, and Kelly became the first pilot to fly an F-14 equipped with it.
Kelly retired from active duty on the 19th of June 2012 as a captain, after 25 years of naval service. He had flown more than 8,000 hours in over 40 types of aircraft and made more than 250 carrier landings. By that date he had already been an astronaut for sixteen years.
In 1995 both Kelly brothers applied to NASA. In April 1996 they were chosen as astronaut candidates, the first relatives ever selected by the agency. That July Scott moved to Houston and began training with Astronaut Group 16 at the Johnson Space Center. When training ended, his first assignment was the caution and warning system for the International Space Station.
In March 1999 NASA named Kelly pilot of STS-103 aboard the shuttle Discovery, under the command of Curt Brown. The mission was a repair visit to the Hubble Space Telescope, carrying new instruments and upgraded systems. Discovery launched on the 19th of December 1999 and caught up with Hubble after 40 orbits. Spacewalkers made three outings to replace gyroscopes and a transmitter and to install a new guidance sensor and a new recorder. On the 25th of December the crew marked the only Christmas the Space Shuttle program ever spent in orbit, with a reading by Brown. Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center on the 27th of December 1999, after 119 orbits.
The years that followed were crowded. Kelly served as NASA's director of operations in Star City, Russia, and he was the backup crewmember for Peggy Whitson on Expedition 5 and for Tracy Caldwell Dyson on Expedition 23/24. When the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart, he coordinated airplane and helicopter searches for debris. He also became chief of the Astronaut Office's Space Station Branch. In September 2002 he commanded the NEEMO 4 mission aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory, four miles off Key Largo. The crew practiced saturation diving as a stand-in for working under extreme conditions in space. Hurricane Isidore delayed the mission and trimmed the time underwater to five days. In April 2005 he returned to Aquarius for the three-day NEEMO 8 mission, where the crew practiced construction during an underwater spacewalk with a remotely operated vehicle.
Kelly then took command of STS-118 aboard Endeavour, a flight pushed back to August 2007 by the aftermath of the Columbia disaster. It launched on the 8th of August 2007, and during the ascent nine pieces of foam from the external tank struck the orbiter, the same kind of hit that had doomed Columbia. Cameras on the robotic arm and on the station inspected the underside of Endeavour, and engineers judged that the damage was not dangerous. Endeavour docked with the station on the 10th of August. The crew added a truss segment, an external spare-parts platform and a control moment gyroscope. Four spacewalks installed the new equipment, and the mission stretched out to test a system that lets a docked shuttle draw electrical power from the station. Hurricane Dean then moved toward Houston, so the flight ended a day early. Endeavour landed at Kennedy on the 21st of August 2007 after 201 orbits, 12 days, 17 hours, 55 minutes and 34 seconds. His next trip would leave from Kazakhstan instead of Florida.
At 7:10 in the evening, Eastern time, on the 7th of October 2010, Kelly lifted off from Baikonur aboard Soyuz TMA-01M with the cosmonauts Aleksandr Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka. It was the first launch of an updated Soyuz, with improved guidance, environmental control and flight-control systems. The three arrived at the station on the 9th of October and joined Expedition 25, led by Douglas Wheelock, with Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin as flight engineers.
On the 25th of November 2010, Wheelock and his departing crewmates returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-19, and Wheelock handed command of the station to Kelly. During his months aboard, the crew supported about 115 science experiments. They included an improved water-recycling machine, a Boiler Experiment Facility that tested heat transfer in microgravity, and a Japanese study of how vegetables grow in weightlessness. Earlier, Yurchikhin and Skripochka had gone outside to fit a workstation and handrails to the Zvezda module and to take down three Russian experiments.
On the 17th of December 2010, Soyuz TMA-20 delivered the Expedition 26/27 crew: the cosmonaut Dmitri Kondratyev, the NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman and the European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli. The shuttle Discovery arrived with the STS-133 crew on the 26th of February 2011. Two spacewalks replaced a pump and installed the Permanent Multipurpose Module. Discovery undocked on the 7th of March and landed for the last time two days later.
On the 8th of January 2011, while Kelly was in orbit, his sister-in-law, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was shot in Tucson. Soyuz TMA-01M brought him down in Kazakhstan on the 16th of March 2011, and he traveled to TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston to see Giffords and Mark. Mark commanded STS-134, the last flight of Endeavour, which launched on the 16th of May 2011 with Giffords watching. It had first been scheduled for February 2011, a date that would have made the Kelly brothers the first twins to fly in space together.
NASA began planning a year-long station stay after Russia announced a similar mission. The aim was to learn how long spaceflight changes the human body. In November 2012 Kelly was chosen for the mission, but doctors disqualified him the very next day because his eyesight had worsened in microgravity. He appealed, and NASA picked him again, this time paired with the cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko.
The docking of Soyuz TMA-16M came at 9:36 that evening, Eastern time, and the crew joined Expedition 43 under Terry Virts, with Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti as flight engineers. Supplies were already a worry. The station received a SpaceX Dragon delivery on the CRS-6 mission, but it lost another cargo ship when the Russian Progress 59 failed. On the 11th of June 2015, Virts handed command to Gennady Padalka, and Expedition 44 began as the previous Soyuz landed in Kazakhstan. Soyuz TMA-17M arrived on the 22nd of July with Kjell Lindgren, Oleg Kononenko and Kimiya Yui. The Japanese HTV-5 and the Russian Progress 60 brought supplies, but the SpaceX CRS-7 rocket failed, and another delivery was lost.
A Soyuz can stay in orbit only about 200 days, so the capsule Kelly arrived in could not carry him home. Soyuz TMA-18M docked on the 4th of September 2015 with Sergey Volkov, Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov. It brought the fresh Soyuz that would return Kelly, Kornienko and Volkov in March 2016. Padalka, Mogensen and Aimbetov left a week later in the older capsule.
On the 11th of September 2015, Padalka gave command of the station to Kelly, and Expedition 45 began. On the 28th of October, Kelly and Lindgren went outside to service the Canadarm2, to work on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, and to run cables for a docking adapter meant for Boeing's Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon. A second spacewalk, on the 6th of November, serviced the ammonia cooling system on the P6 truss. Expedition 46 began on the 11th of December, when Lindgren, Kononenko and Yui departed.
On the 15th of December, Timothy Kopra, Timothy Peake and Yuri Malenchenko arrived aboard Soyuz TMA-19M. Six days later, Kelly and Kopra made an unscheduled spacewalk to free the brake handles on the Mobile Transporter rail car, which had halted without warning when flight controllers commanded it from the ground. The repair worked. On the 8th of January 2016, Kelly appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with what the show called the first thank-you note sent from space. A spacewalk on the 15th of January, by Kopra and Peake, replaced a voltage regulator but ended early when water began collecting inside Kopra's helmet.
On the 1st of March 2016, Kelly handed command to Kopra and left in Soyuz TMA-18M with Kornienko and Volkov. The capsule landed in Kazakhstan. Kelly himself was back in Houston the following day.
A blood sample was only the beginning. Throughout the mission, researchers collected blood and urine again and again for chemical analysis. They also examined how fluids shift around the body in weightlessness and what that does to eyesight. Kelly took part in all of the biological testing given to station astronauts.
His case went further, because Mark, his identical twin, served as the ground control subject in a comparative study. Researchers measured Scott's cognitive and genetic traits before and after the flight, with his brother as the baseline. Within several months of landing, Scott had readjusted to life under gravity. The genetic tests found changes in his gene expression. They also showed that his telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes, were longer than they had been before he flew.
On the 12th of March 2016, Kelly announced that he would leave NASA, effective the 1st of April. That November the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs named him United Nations Champion for Space, to help promote its outreach work. In November 2017 he published a memoir, Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery. On the 19th of June 2018, at the UNISPACE50+ conference in Vienna, he told the audience: "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. The sky is not the limit."
His family life has run alongside the career. On the 25th of April 1992, Kelly married Leslie Yandell, whom he had met while stationed in Virginia Beach. They have two children and divorced in 2010. In July 2018 he married Amiko Kauderer, a NASA public affairs officer. In 2007 he was successfully treated for prostate cancer, and Mark was diagnosed and successfully treated afterward. Mark has since become the senior U.S. senator from Arizona, and Giffords is his wife.
Recognition came steadily. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale gave him an honorary Korolev Diploma in 1999, and the State University of New York awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Science in 2008. He appeared on the cover of Time on the 29th of December 2014 and was named to the Time 100 list in 2015. He is an associate fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and a member of the Association of Space Explorers.
In March 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Kelly decided to mail back his Russian Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" to the Russian embassy in Washington. On the 9th of March he wrote to former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, asking him to give it to "a Russian mother whose son has died in this unjust war". On the 27th of October 2022, Kelly became an ambassador for UNITED24, the Ukrainian fundraising platform, and took on its Medical Aid effort. His first project was raising money for C-class ambulances, because doctors needed several hundred such vehicles after many were destroyed in the war.
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Common questions
How long did Scott Kelly stay on the International Space Station during his year-long mission?
He launched on the 27th of March 2015 and returned on the 1st of March 2016, serving on Expeditions 43, 44, 45 and 46 with Mikhail Kornienko.
Why was Scott Kelly's twin brother Mark important to the science?
Mark, an identical twin and fellow retired astronaut, served as the ground control subject, so researchers could compare Scott's genetic and cognitive traits before and after the flight.
What did the genetic tests find after Scott Kelly's year in space?
They found changes in his gene expression and an increase in the length of his telomeres compared with before the flight.
Was Scott Kelly almost kept off the year-long mission?
Yes. He was chosen in November 2012 but medically disqualified the next day because his vision worsened in microgravity. He appealed and was selected again.
What did Scott Kelly do after leaving NASA?
He retired effective the 1st of April 2016, became United Nations Champion for Space, published the memoir Endurance, and in 2022 became an ambassador for UNITED24.
All sources
85 references cited across the entry
- 1The top 15 events that happened in space in 2016Calandrelli E, Escher A — December 16, 2016
- 2Astronaut Scott Kelly to Retire from NASA in AprilBrian Dunbar — NASA — August 7, 2017
- 3International Space Station Expedition 25Mark Garcia — NASA — November 16, 2018
- 4International Space Station Expedition 26Mark Garcia — NASA — November 16, 2018
- 5NewsExpedition 25 Returns HomeAmiko Kauder — NASA — November 26, 2010
- 6NASA, Roscosmos Assign Veteran Crew to Yearlong Space Station Mission NASA.govJoshua Buck et al. — NASA — November 26, 2012
- 7One-Year Crew Begins Epic Trip on International Space StationMiriam Kramer — Space.com — March 28, 2015
- 8SCOTT J. KELLY (CAPTAIN, USN, RET.) NASA ASTRONAUTNASA — February 2016
- 9Veteran Station Crew Returns to Earth after Historic MissionMark Garcia — NASA — March 1, 2016
- 10Record-breaking astronaut Scott Kelly retiring this AprilMark Seppala — March 12, 2016
- 11Mark E. Kelly (Captain, USN)NASA — July 2011
- 12NewsArizona U.S. Senate Special Election ResultsNovember 3, 2020
- 13Scott Joseph KellySpacefacts — August 25, 2018
- 14NewsTwin astronauts remember their mother, West Orange's first female police officerLisa Rose — NJ Advance Media — April 27, 2012
- 15Kelly named among top 100 Irish Americans by Irish America/Irish CentralGabrielle Giffords — June 2, 2011
- 16BookEndurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of DiscoveryScott Kelly et al. — Alfred A. Knopf — 2017
- 17Astronaut Scott Kelly: BiographyElizabeth Howell — September 4, 2019
- 18Expedition 23 and 24NASA — April 2010
- 19NEEMO HistoryBrian Dunbar — NASA — June 9, 2014
- 20Life Sciences Data Archive: ExperimentNASA — NASA — April 21, 2011
- 21STS-103Jeanne Ryba — NASA — November 23, 2007
- 22NewsEndeavour's performance during re-entry classed as phenomenalChris Bergin — NASA — August 21, 2007
- 23STS-118: Build the station. Build the future.NASA — July 2007
- 24STS-118Jeanne Ryba — NASA — November 23, 2007
- 25Expedition 25 and 26NASA — October 2010
- 26Three New Station Crew Members Launch from KazakhstanAmiko Kauderer — NASA — October 23, 2010
- 27NewsNASA Preflight Interview: Scott KellyAmiko Kauderer — NASA — August 4, 2010
- 28Soyuz TMA-M manned transport vehicle of a new seriesS.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation — 2018
- 29NewsNASA Assigns Space Station Crews, Updates Expedition NumberingNASA — October 12, 2010
- 30New Expedition 26 Trio Arrives at StationAmiko Kauderer — NASA — December 20, 2010
- 31Discovery Makes Last Mission a Flight to RememberSteve Siceloff — NASA — August 7, 2017
- 32Expedition 26 Returns HomeAmiko Kauderer — NASA — March 16, 2011
- 33NewsGiffords gets visit from husband's twin brotherAmanda Myers — Arizona Republic — March 21, 2011
- 34STS-134Amiko Kauderer — NASA — June 9, 2011
- 35NASA's First Twins to Fly in Space TogetherAshle Robinson — NASA — August 26, 2010
- 36One-Year ISS Mission Preview: 28 Experiments, 4 Expeditions and 2 Crew MembersJason Davis — The Planetary Society — March 25, 2015
- 37Obama Hails NASA Astronaut Set for 1-Year Space Voyage in State of the UnionRobert Z. Pearlman — Purch — January 21, 2015
- 38Crew Begins Year in SpaceMark Garcia — NASA — March 27, 2015
- 39Expedition 43NASA — 2015
- 40Robotic Arm Captures DragonMark Garcia — NASA — April 17, 2015
- 41Progress 59 Update Apr. 30, 2015Dan Hout — NASA — April 30, 2015
- 42Soyuz Crew Returns Home after 199 Days in SpaceMark Garcia — NASA — June 11, 2015
- 43Soyuz Rocket Launches Expedition 44 Trio to SpaceMark Garcia — NASA — July 22, 2015
- 44Japan's Cargo Ship Installed on StationMark Garcia — NASA — August 24, 2015
- 45Russian Cargo Craft Arrives at Space StationMark Garcia — NASA — July 5, 2015
- 46NASA Administrator's Statement on CRS-7Steven Siceloff — NASA — June 28, 2015
- 47Completed Soyuz Relocation Sets Stage for New CrewMark Garcia — NASA — August 28, 2015
- 48Soyuz Crew Docks Delivering New Science to StationMark Garcia — NASA — September 4, 2015
- 49Soyuz rocket accident could spell trouble for space stationMichael Greshko — October 11, 2018
- 50Three Soyuz Crew Members Wrap Up Mission on Space StationMark Garcia — NASA — September 11, 2015
- 51Space Station Receives Express Delivery in Six HoursMark Garcia — NASA — October 1, 2015
- 52Astronaut Kjell Lindgren Captures Cygnus SpacecraftMark Garcia — NASA — December 9, 2015
- 53NASA Astronauts Complete Their First SpacewalkMark Garcia — NASA — October 28, 2015
- 54Astronauts Make Quick Work of Short SpacewalkMark Garcia — NASA — December 21, 2015
- 55Pair of NASA Astronauts Wrap Up Second SpacewalkMark Garcia — NASA — November 6, 2015
- 56Soyuz With Expedition 45 Trio Lands After 141 Days in SpaceMark Garcia — NASA — December 11, 2015
- 57New Crew Arrives at Station for Six-Month MissionMark Garcia — NASA — December 15, 2015
- 58Unscheduled Spacewalk Likely on MondayKelly Humphries — NASA — December 18, 2015
- 59Fourth Russian Cargo Ship This Year Docks to StationMark Garcia — NASA — December 23, 2015
- 60Spacewalk Ends Successfully But Early After Water Detected in HelmetDan Hout — NASA — January 15, 2016
- 61Our first ever Thank You Note from outer space! Thanks, Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly)! #FallonTonightJimmy Fallon — January 8, 2016
- 62Second Spacewalk of Year CompleteMark Garcia — NASA — February 3, 2016
- 64Press releaseUpdate on NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly's Return to HoustonStephanie Schierholz et al. — NASA — March 1, 2016
- 65NewsNASA Twins Study Confirms Preliminary FindingsMonica Edwards et al. — NASA
- 66No, Scott Kelly's Year in Space Didn't Mutate His DNANadia Drake — March 15, 2018
- 67NASA Twins Study Investigators to Release Integrated Paper in 2018Monica Edwards et al. — NASA — August 16, 2018
- 68Former astronaut Scott Kelly is United Nations Champion for SpaceWickramatunga, Robert — United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) — November 22, 2016
- 69United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs announces former astronaut Scott Kelly as Champion for SpaceDaria Brankin — November 20, 2016
- 70NewsAstronaut Scott Kelly will write a book about his year in spaceMichael Schaub — April 6, 2016
- 71If we can build the International Space Station, 'we can do anything' – UN Champion for SpaceUN News — UN News — 2018-06-19
- 72Disney TV's 'Big City Greens the Movie: Spacecation' Blasts Off June 6Mercedes Milligan — March 7, 2024
- 73INTERVIEW: Blast Off With "Big City Greens The Movie: Spacecation"Jackson Murphy — June 4, 2024
- 74.@amikokauderer and I are happily married! We were very honored to have @SylvesterTurner officiate our wedding here in our hometown @HoustonTX overlooking @DiscoveryGreen last weekend. We'll be sharing more from our weekend wedding & what's next for us soon!Scott Kelly — July 18, 2018
- 75Out of this world: Astronaut Kelly, girlfriend learn to live apartKyrie O'Connor — May 28, 2015
- 76Press releaseAstronaut Scott Kelly became an ambassador of the United24 fundraising platform and presented an ambulance to UkrainePresident of Ukraine — October 27, 2022
- 77Astronaut Scott Kelly Becomes an Ambassador of the UNITED24 Fundraising Platform, Presenting an Ambulance to UkraineUnited24 — October 27, 2022
- 78MagazineGo Behind TIME's NASA Cover with Photographer Marco GrobOliver Laurent — December 18, 2014
- 79Scott KellyJohn Glenn — April 16, 2015
- 80Господин Медведев, я возвращаю Вам российскую медаль "За заслуги в освоении космоса", которую вы мне вручили. Пожалуйста, отдайте его русской матери, чей сын погиб в этой несправедливой войне. Я отправлю медаль по почте в посольство России в Вашингтоне. Удачи.
- 83BookEndurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of DiscoveryKelly, Scott — Alfred A. Knopf — 2017
- 84BookMy Journey to the StarsScott Kelly — Crown Books for Young Readers — 2017
- 85BookEndurance, Young Readers Edition: My Year in Space and How I Got ThereScott Kelly — Crown Books for Young Readers — 2018
- 86BookInfinite wonder: an astronaut's photographs from a year in space.Scott Kelly — Alfred A. Knopf — 2018