World News – US – Mark Kelly becomes 4th astronaut elected to Congress

Mark Kelly won a seat in the US Senate, making him the fourth NASA astronaut to be elected to Congress

Kelly, who launched four times in space before pursuing a career in politics, succeeded in her attempt to represent the state of Arizona in the US Senate Kelly, a Democrat, turned presented against incumbent Martha McSally, a Republican and former US Air Force Combat Pilot The special election was held to end the six-year term of Senator John McCain, who died in 2018 (McSally was temporarily appointed by the governor of Arizona after McCain’s death)

« When we launched this campaign from this very place, right here, 619 days ago, I could never have predicted how many Arizonans would be on this mission, » Kelly said, addressing her. supporters at Congress Hotel in Tucson on Tuesday evening (Nov 3) « This mission doesn’t end when the last vote is counted It’s only the beginning »

Kelly won the election by a 5,263 percent margin, according to Arizona Secretary of State

« When I was at NASA we trained for two years for a space shuttle mission To be in the space shuttle simulator and fly and train, two years to focus on the details Two years before we were on the launch pad ready to go And then the work began « , he says » Now the work begins « 

Kelly, who is married to former Arizona congressman Gabby Giffords, moved to Tucson in 2012 after retiring from NASA and Giffords survived an assassination attempt the year before Together, the couple co-founded « Giffords » to advocate for the reduction of gun violence and to help make communities safer.

Kelly could possibly take office as soon as the end of the month, while waiting for the state to certify the election results When sworn in, Kelly will become the only active member of Congress to have flown in space. is preceded in the legislative branch of the US government by three former NASA astronauts and two members of Congress who flew on the space shuttle as payload specialists

Kelly, a former US Navy captain, naval aviator and test pilot who flew combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, was selected for the 1996 Class of Astronaut Candidate of NASA – the same group that included his twin brother, Scott

Kelly has logged over 54 days in space on four shuttle missions He served as a pilot on his first flight, STS-108, launching the Space Shuttle Endeavor to deliver supplies to the International Space Station in 2001 Five years later, Kelly flew as a shuttle Discovery pilot on STS-121, NASA’s second return-in-flight mission after the loss of the Columbia orbiter and its crew in 2003.

Kelly commanded Discovery’s STS-124 crew in 2008, which installed the Japanese Kibo lab on the space station. Its fourth and final mission, STS-134, marked Endeavor’s last flight and delivered the alpha magnetic spectrometer, a cosmic ray detector, to be mounted on the station’s trellis

After leaving NASA, Kelly volunteered for another « mission », allowing scientists at the agency to collect her physiological and medical data while her brother provided it for a year aboard the space station Landmark twin study helped further reveal the effects of long-term space travel on the human body

The first astronaut to trade in his spaceship couch for a seat in Congress was John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth One of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, Glenn served as US Senator representing the state of Ohio as a Democrat for four terms, from 1974 to 1999. After leaving office, Glenn, then 77 , flew into orbit again, launching onto Space Shuttle Discovery as a payload specialist

Apollo 13 Command Module Pilot John « Jack » Swigert was elected to the US House of Representatives representing Colorado’s 6th District as a Republican in 1982, but tragically died of cancer before to be able to take up his duties

Harrison « Jack » Schmitt, Apollo 17 lunar module pilot, was one of the last two to walk on the moon in 1972, serving the state of New Mexico in the Senate as a Republican for six years , from 1977 to 1983

Going the other way, Senator Jake Garn (R-UT) and Representative Bill Nelson (D-FL) were chosen to fly on the Space Shuttle as Congressional Observers and Payload Specialists at a time when NASA was working on the opening of space flights to “citizen” passengers Garn joined the STS-51D crew on Discovery for a one-week mission to deploy two communications satellites in 1985

Nelson, who was later elected to the Senate, flew over Columbia with the crew of the STS-61C The six-day mission, which was the last to fly before the shuttle Challenger tragedy, deployed a satellite and conducted scientific research in 1986

In addition to these five space explorers and Kelly, four other US astronauts showed up to Congress, but failed to bid

Apollo 15 Command Module pilot Al Worden campaigned but lost the Republican primary for Florida’s 12th district seat in the House of Representatives in 1982 Jack Lousma, a crew member of Skylab and the space shuttle, won the Republican primary, but lost the election to become Michigan senator in 1984

Jay Buckey, who flew as an STS-90 payload specialist on Columbia, withdrew his candidacy for a seat in the New Hampshire Senate ahead of the Democratic primary in 2008 Two years later, STS-128 mission specialist José Hernández won the Democratic nomination but lost the election for the California District’s 10th seat in the House of Representatives

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Mark Kelly, NASA, Astronaut, United States Senator, United States Senate