St. Louis Speaker Series – Scott Kelly

NASA Astronaut
Tuesday, February 21, 2023 8pm

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. He 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 (ISS) in 2007.

Kelly’s 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 has orbited the Earth more than 8,300 times. He has received many awards and honors, including the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the 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 Barack 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 Kelly published the New York Times best-selling memoir Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery. More recently he published Infinite Wonder: An Astronaut’s Photographs from a Year in Space, a collection of extraordinary images he photographed aboard the International Space Station, also a New York Times bestseller. He is also the author of two children’s books, My Journey to the Stars and Goodnight, Astronaut. His next book, Ready for Launch: An Astronaut’s Lessons for Success on Earth will be published in 2022.

Born and raised in Orange, New Jersey, 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. Kelly is married to Amiko, a former NASA public affairs officer, and has two children, Samantha and Charlie, from a previous marriage. His identical twin brother, Mark, is also a former NASA astronaut and the current junior U.S. Senator from Arizona. In 2021, he was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.