People: Scott Kelly

But while his identical twin brother Scott is, well, identical, after spending one year in space, the brothers are now slightly different. Scott Kelly’s body adapted to living in microgravity and his physiology changed. The Kelly brothers were both astronaut candidates in 1996, the first relatives ever in the NASA program. Scott Kelly flew four space flights, was commander of the International Space Station, and became a household name when he spent a year in space from March 2015 to March 2016 with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. 

What launched him on his career was a book. “I was a struggling college student; in fact, I struggled with academics my entire life. One day in my first year of college I came across Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff. Reading this book at 18 years old put me on a trajectory towards aviation that culminated in me flying my first space flight nearly 18 years later,” Kelly says.

“I always struggled with paying attention. I likely have ADD or ADHD but have never been diagnosed. The first part to overcoming this challenge was discovering something I wanted to do so badly, something that required an education, which for me was becoming a military pilot. Once I found that inspiration, I was eventually able to figure out what it took for me to do well in school. Then I applied myself and never gave up.”

At Naval Air Station Pensacola in 1989 Kelly flew his favorite aircraft: the F–14 Tomcat. “It might not be the most capable fourth generation fighter, but it’s arguably the coolest looking,” he says. “It’s the Harley-Davidson of fighter planes.”

Kelly has more than 8,000 flight hours in 40 different aircraft models. He also has 250 carrier landings. “My favorite aviation activity is launching off an aircraft carrier, soon followed by my least favorite, night carrier landings.”

And, if you count all his hours in space, he probably can say more than 16,000 hours (but “some of that I was sleeping”). With a multiengine commercial certificate, a master’s degree in aviation systems, his naval accomplishments, and all that space time, it is no wonder that the now-retired astronaut lists “motivational speaker” as one of his current activities. “If I can have a career in the aviation field, you likely can too,” he advises.

Kelly recently joined Breitling’s Aviation Pioneers Squad, which celebrates “a new age of adventure in the air.” The squad also includes drone pilot Luke Bannister (January 2020 AOPA Pilot) and Rocío González Torres (March 2020 AOPA Pilot).

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