Scott Kelly is a former NASA astronaut. He has become one of the greatest pioneers in history after spending 340 consecutive days in space. He is a former military pilot, engineer and retired U.S. Navy Captain. He served as a Flight Engineer on ISS Expedition 25.
He was born on February 21, 1964 in West Orange, New Jersey, United States. Scott has an identical twin brother Mark Kelly who is a former astronaut. This is why Scott and Mark were the first siblings to travel into the space.
Quick Facts: –
- Scott received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the State University of New York Maritime College in 1987.
- In 1989, he became a Naval Aviator and completed his training at the Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia.
- He earned his master’s degree in aviation systems in 1996 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
- His first ever spaceflight was as a pilot of the Space Shuttle Discovery during the STS-103 in 1999.
- Till now, Scott Kelly has spent a total of 520 days in the space during 2 long-duration space station missions and 2 shorter-duration space shuttle missions.
- He commanded the International Space Station on Expeditions 26, 45 and 46.
- He did a twin study with his brother to figure out if spending longer times in space causes any genetic changes.
- Scott had a seven percent change in gene expression from Mark and those changes remained for 6 months after the expedition.
- He got his memoir published under the name ‘Endurance: My Year in Space and Our Journey to Mars’ in 2017.