Captain Scott Kelly: History-Making NASA Astronaut; First to Complete a Year-in-Space Mission

Scott Kelly is a former NASA astronaut and retired United States Navy Captain, U.S. spaceflight record holder and an experienced test pilot having logged more than 15,000 hours of flight time in more than 40 different aircraft and spacecraft.

A former fighter pilot, Kelly flew the F-14 Tomcat aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Kelly was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1996. A veteran of four space flights, he piloted Space Shuttle Discovery to the Hubble space telescope in 1999 and subsequently commanded Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to the International Space Station in 2007. His long-duration space flight experience includes two flights on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, launching and landing from Kazakhstan and two stays aboard the International Space Station as commander, the first a 159-day mission in 2010-2011 followed by his recorded-breaking 340-day mission to the ISS in 2015.

During his yearlong mission, known worldwide as the “Year in Space,” he conducted three spacewalks before returning home in March 2016. His Year in Space Mission was chronicled in a Time Magazine documentary series and an Emmy Award-winning PBS special. Kelly has traveled more than 200 million miles, which is more than twice the distance to the Sun, and he has orbited the Earth more than 8,300 times.

Kelly has received many awards and honors, including the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and Distinguished Flying Cross. He was on the cover of TIME Magazine in December 2014 and was named one of its 100 Most Influential People in 2015. Kelly also was recognized at the 2015 State of the Union Address by United States President Barrack Obama.

Kelly is a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and a member of the Association of Space Explorers. He is a highly sought-after public speaker who exemplifies leadership while testing the limits of the human spirit and endurance. In 2016 he published a New York Times bestseller memoir Endurance, A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery. More recently he published Infinite Wonder – a collection of extraordinary images he photographed aboard the International Space Station, also a New York Times bestseller. Published in 2022, his most recent book is Ready for Launch: An Astronaut’s Lessons for Success on Earth.