Scott Kelly (astronaut)

This article is about the astronaut Scott J. Kelly. For the musician Scott Kelly see Scott Kelly (musician)

Scott Joseph Kelly
Born	(1964-02-21) February 21, 1964 Orange, New Jersey
Status	Active
Nationality	American
Occupation	Test Pilot
Space career
NASA Astronaut
Rank	Captain, USN
Time in space	Currently in space
Selection	1996 NASA Group
Missions	STS-103, STS-118, Soyuz TMA-01M, Expedition 25/26
Mission insignia	File:Soyuz-TMA-01M-Mission-Patch.svg

Scott Joseph Kelly (born February 21, 1964, in Orange, New Jersey) is an American astronaut currently serving as a flight engineer on the International Space Station (ISS). A veteran of two space shuttle missions, Kelly joined the crew of ISS Expedition 25 on October 9, 2010 after arriving on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

After the undocking of Soyuz TMA-19 in November 2010 ISS Expedition 26 will commence with Scott Kelly serving as station commander.

Scott's twin brother, Mark E. Kelly, is also an astronaut. The Kelly brothers are the only twins and the only siblings who have both traveled in space. Mark Kelly is scheduled to command space shuttle Endeavor STS-134 on a mission to the ISS while his brother Scott is serving as ISS commander. If STS-134 launches by mid-March 2011, Mark and Scott Kelly will become the first siblings, twins and blood relatives to travel in space at the same time.

NASA career

Selected by NASA in April 1996, Kelly reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. On completion of training, he was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Spacecraft Systems/Operations Branch.

NASA's space shuttle program is officially called the Space Transportation System (STS). After Kelly's first flight on STS-103 he served as NASA’s Director of Operations in Star City, Russia. Kelly was a back-up crew member for ISS Expedition 5. He also served as the Astronaut Office Space Station Branch Chief.

Spaceflight experience

STS-103

Scott Kelly was the pilot of STS-103 Discovery (December 19–27, 1999), on an eight-day mission during which the crew successfully installed new instruments and upgraded systems on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Enhancing HST scientific capabilities required three space walks. Traveling 3.2 million miles in space, the STS-103 mission was accomplished in 120 Earth orbits, spanning 191 hours and 11 minutes.

STS-118

Scott Kelly served as mission commander of STS-118 Endeavour (August 8–21, 2007), the 119th space shuttle flight, the 22nd flight to the station and the 20th flight for Endeavour. During the mission, Endeavour's crew successfully added a truss segment, a new gyroscope and external spare parts platform to the International Space Station. A new system that enables docked shuttles to draw electrical power from the station to extend visits to the outpost was activated successfully.

During and after the mission, the media focused heavily on a small puncture in the heat shield, created by a piece of insulation foam that came off the external tank of Endeavour during liftoff. Foam impact was the cause of the destruction of space shuttle Columbia, but the extent of damage was very small in comparison and in a less critical area.

Four spacewalks (EVAs) were performed by three crew members. Endeavour carried some 5,000 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station and returned to Earth with some 4,000 pounds of hardware and no longer needed equipment. Traveling 5.3 million miles in space, the STS-118 mission was completed in 12 days, 17 hours, 55 minutes and 34 seconds.

Soyuz TMA-01M

Scott Kelly launched to the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-01M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:10 p.m. EDT on Thursday, October 7, 2010 (5:10 a.m. Friday in Kazakhstan). Aboard the Soyuz rocket with Kelly were Soyuz Commander Alexander Kaleri of Russia and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka.

TMA-01M is the first of a new generation of the Soyuz spacecraft. Kelly discussed the upgrades in a pre-flight interview: "The improvements are rather significant. The displays that the cosmonauts and myself—although my role in the Soyuz is somewhat minor—use to control the vehicle have been upgraded to make flying it easier. It’s less operator-intensive, but the main and most important change is they have a new, what we would refer to as a flight control computer. So the computer that operates the systems on board is new and the software is new.

"Now the software is written in a way to kind of model the previous algorithms that control the vehicle but it is new software and it is new hardware, most of which has been tested on the Progress, Russian resupply vehicles, but the Progress doesn’t re-enter the same way as the Soyuz does so when we come home in March it’ll be the first time that this new flight control computer and the entry software will be demonstrated in flight."

ISS Expedition 25

Scott Kelly, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka arrived at the International Space Station on October 9, 2010. Kelly will serve as flight engineer during his time on Expedition 25. October 9 marked the beginning of the second part of Expedition 25 bringing the number of people aboard the ISS to six. The rest of the crew includes Commander Douglas Wheelock, along with flight engineers Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin.

Pending mission

ISS Expedition 26

Scott Kelly posing for the Expedition 26 crew picture on July 16th 2010

Scott Kelly will serve as commander of Expedition 26 which is scheduled to begin in November 2010 when half of the crew of Expedition 25 returns to Earth on Soyuz TMA-19.

Scott Kelly was asked about what it will be like to command the ISS: "Certainly as the commander you’re responsible for safety and the health of your people and making sure they have everything they need to do their jobs. I’ll certainly be conscious of those things but we’re all professionals, we all understand what we need to do, and we’re all kind of self-starters and kind of take care of ourselves very well so it shouldn’t be much different than when Doug Wheelock, the previous commander, was in charge."

During Kelly’s time aboard the International Space Station (including Expeditions 25 and 26) there will be a number of visiting space vehicles. These include:

• A Russian Soyuz spacecraft arriving with the rest of the Expedition 26 crew
• Two Progress resupply vehicles
• A European resupply Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)
• A Japanese HTV [H-II Transfer Vehicle]
• Two space shuttle missions: STS-133 in November and STS-134 in early March

Scott's brother Mark Kelly is scheduled to command space shuttle Endeavour and rendezvous with the ISS on STS-134, the final planned American space shuttle mission. Mark Kelly and his crew will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the ISS. AMS is a 15,000 lb cosmic particle detector that will be installed on the outside of ISS. Its experiments will help researchers study the formation of the universe and search for evidence of dark matter and antimatter.

September 2010 Interview

In anticipation of the potential rendezvous in space of the Kelly brothers, NASA conducted an extensive interview with Scott and Mark which is available on the NASA website.

Naval career

Kelly received his commission via the Navy Reserve Officer Corp (NROTC) following graduation from the State University of New York Maritime College in May 1987. He was designated a Naval Aviator in July 1989 at Naval Air Station Chase Field in Beeville, Texas.

He reported to Fighter Squadron 101 at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, for initial F-14 Tomcat training. Upon completion of this training, he was assigned to Fighter Squadron 143 and made overseas deployments to the North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Persian Gulf aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69).

Scott Kelly was selected to attend the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland in January 1993 and completed training in June 1994. After graduation, he worked as a test pilot at the Strike Aircraft Test Squadron, Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, flying the F-14A/B/D, F/A-18A/B/C/D and KC-130F. Kelly was the first pilot to fly an F-14 with an experimental digital flight control system installed and performed subsequent high angle of attack and departure testing.

He has logged more than 3,000 flight-hours in more than 30 different aircraft and has more than 250 carrier landings.

Kelly remains on active-duty. He is on loan to NASA and holds the rank of Captain in the U.S. Navy.

Awards

Kelly is the recipient of the following awards: Defense Superior Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, two Navy Unit Commendation Ribbons, two National Defense Service Medals, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Kuwait Liberation Medal and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.

Education

Kelly graduated from West Orange's Mountain High School in 1982. He received a bachelor of science degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York Maritime College in 1987, and a master of science degree in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1996.

Personal life

Kelly was born in Orange, New Jersey to Richard and Patricia Kelly, and raised in the nearby community of West Orange.

He is divorced and has two children.

Scott Kelly may also refer to an award winning manager/foster parent who currently resides in London, UK. He is the worlds first person to have a bionic eye implant and was voted in 2009 to be Mayor of Amwell. He unfortunatly lost the next election to Timothy Standing. There was outrage in the world's press as this election was believed to have been rigged. As all the residents of Amwell have said they all voted for Kelly. They have been quoted saying they will always hold Kelly in their hearts and will not accept Standing as the new Mayor. A inquest has been launced by David Cameron afterthe 2010 riots.

Organizations

Kelly is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and the Association of Space Explorers.

External links

• Scott Kelly on X
• NASA Biography
• August 4, 2010 NASA pre-flight interview with Kelly
• October 7, 2010, Soyuz TMA-01M launch video
• Spacefacts biography of Scott J. Kelly
• Current photo of Scott J. Kelly