Scott Kelly, left, and Mark Kelly meet at NASA's Ellington Field hangar in Houston in 2008 Photo Credit/NASA
Twins in space?
It was bound to happen, someday.
And some day is just around the corner, as veteran NASA astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly prepare to command missions aboard the International Space Station and the space agency’s final scheduled shuttle mission aboard Endeavour.
The two 46-year-old Navy test pilots will meet aboard the space station in late February/early March. If the current scheduling holds, Mark Kelly will maneuver Endeavour into a space station docking port and Scott Kelly will be there to greet him.
“We have this great privilege of being able to fly in space and serve our country in this capacity,” Scott said this week in series of interviews with news media hailing from their native New Jersey all the way to Colorado. “Obviously, we have known each other for a long time, and it’s great to be able to share that privilege. It makes it even more special that we get to do it in real time and get to see each other in space. We really look forward to it.”
Mark, who sports a mustache to help co-workers tell the two men apart, was just as enthusiastic.
“I really look forward to it. I think it will be a lot of fun,” Mark told one interviewer. “This is something we did not expect to happen.”
As this year began, Mark Kelly’s mission was to launch on July 29. Endeavour would have been launched and landed well before his brother launched. However, there were changes to Endeavour’s primary payload, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, that led to a delay.
Scott Kelly is slated to lift off for the station aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 7. He’ll embark on a six-month mission, accompanying Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka.
Mark Kelly’s command of Endeavour’s 13-day flight will begin with a Feb. 26 lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The six-member, U. S. and Italian shuttle crew will deliver the $1.5 billion AMS and spare parts to the station. The AMS, an external observatory, will study cosmic rays, anti-matter and search for dark matter over a decade of use..
The twins were selected by NASA for astronaut training in 1996.
Scott has flown twice previously, commanding and piloting shuttle missions.
Mark, who is six minutes older than his brother, has commanded one shuttle flight already and served as the pilot on two others.
During their youth in West Orange, N. J., the bothers worked together as ambulance drivers and at a pizza restaurant. But it was not until they were serving in the Navy as test pilots that they considered the possibility of becoming astronauts.
“It’s not really something we talked much about growing up,” said Scott. “I think we were a lot like many kids that are interested in a variety of things, one of them being the space program. It really was not until later, when we were along in our careers as test pilots that we really thought it was possible, and we were lucky enough to get selected.”
Mark is a graduate of the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy with a bachelor’s degree in marine engineering and marine transportation. Scott graduated from the State University of New York with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Both earned graduate degrees in their fields as well.
While Mark has embraced the distinction of commanding the final scheduled shuttle mission, he’d prefer to see NASA win approval from the White House and Congress to add another mission in mid-2011. Nonetheless, Endeavour’s flight will complete the actual assembly of the station.
“It’s a little sad to see the shuttle program come to an end, but the shuttle was designed to build a space station and after (Endeavour’s flight) that will be complete,” said Mark. “If we want to build the next generation of rocket and spacecraft, we have to retire the space shuttle to have the resources to do that. So, while it’s sad to see the shuttle fleet retired and move off to a museum, it’s kind of a necessary thing.”
Scott’s vision for NASA’s future is focused on the human exploration of deep space.
“I’d like to think that in my life time, and certainly my kids’ life times, we will send people to Mars,” he said. “I think we could do that right now, if we had the resources. I think we have a good understanding of the technology. I hope we have the political will. I think we certainly will some day.”