Kelly, who launched four times into space before pursuing a career in politics, was successful in his bid to represent the state of Arizona in the U.
Air Force combat pilot. The special election was held to complete the six-year term of Senator John McCain, who died in McSally was temporarily appointed by Arizona's governor after McCain's death. It is only the beginning. Kelly won the election by a margin of From being in the space shuttle simulator and flying and training, two years of focusing on the details. Two years before we were on the launchpad ready to go.
And then the work started," he said. Kelly, who is married to former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords , moved to Tucson in after he retired from NASA and Giffords survived an assassination attempt the year earlier. Together, the couple co-founded "Giffords" to advocate for reduced gun violence and to help make communities safer. Kelly could possibly take office as soon as the end of the month, pending the state certifying the results of the election.
When he is sworn in, Kelly will become the only active member of Congress who has flown in space. He is preceded in the legislative branch of the U. Kelly, a former captain in the U. Navy, a naval aviator and test pilot who flew combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, was selected for NASA's class of astronaut candidates — the same group that included his twin brother , Scott.
Kelly logged more than 54 days in space on four shuttle missions. He served as the pilot on his first flight, STS, launching on the space shuttle Endeavour to deliver supplies to the International Space Station in Navy pilot.
That included comments in a speech late Nov. It is only the beginning. And now, the work starts. Kelly joins an elite group of former astronauts who went on to serve in Congress.
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, represented Ohio in the Senate for nearly a quarter-century, capping his Senate career with another flight to space on the STS shuttle mission in Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon on the Apollo 17 mission, was elected to the Senate from New Mexico in but lost his bid for reelection in Jack Swigert, who flew on the Apollo 13 mission, was elected to the House from Colorado in , but died of cancer before taking office.
Bill Nelson, who flew on the final shuttle mission before the Challenger accident in as a payload specialist while a member of the House, later won three terms in the Senate from Florida. Jake Garn flew on a shuttle mission in as a payload specialist while serving as a senator from Utah. And he already had a successor in mind: Frank Borman, an astronaut who, a year earlier, had flown to the moon and back on Apollo 8.
But now, decades later, Congress is getting its Arizona astronaut. Kelly worked at NASA for 15 years, flying to space four times before retiring from the agency in Several years later, he was a test subject with his identical twin, Scott Kelly—an astronaut himself—in a NASA study on the effects of space travel on the human body. Kelly is a retired Navy captain and pilot who flew combat missions in the Gulf War—credentials that resonate in a state that elected decorated veterans such as John McCain.
He is married to Gabby Giffords, the former representative from Arizona who was shot in the head in , and he has since boosted gun-control policies alongside her. He raised enormous sums of money , and his opponent tied herself to Trump in a state that seemed to swing away from him. Of the at least seven astronauts who switched out their spacesuits for real suits—counting Kelly—four have won.
Jack Swigert, an Apollo 13 astronaut, won a House seat in Colorado in but died of cancer a week before his term began. Astronauts seem to do well when they go for political office, even though nothing about traveling to space makes them more suited for Capitol Hill than a teacher or a lawyer.
But the public views astronauts as fundamentally different.
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