Current Magellan Award Recipient

Mark Kelly is a retired American astronaut, U.S. Navy captain and naval aviator who flew combat missions during the Gulf War. He was selected to become a NASA space shuttle pilot in 1996 and flew his first mission in 2001 as pilot of STS-108. He piloted STS-121 in 2006 and commanded STS-124 in 2008 and STS-134 in 2011. STS-134 was his final mission and the final mission of space shuttle Endeavour. Kelly is married to U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords.

Kelly’s identical twin brother, Scott Kelly, is also an astronaut and served as commander of International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 26. The Kelly brothers are the only twins and only siblings to have both traveled in space.

Mark Kelly and his brother Scott were both selected to be shuttle pilots by NASA in 1996. They joined the astronaut corps in August of that year. Mark Kelly has logged over 38 days in space.

Scott Kelly is an American astronaut and was commander of the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 26.

Kelly’s first spaceflight was as pilot of Space Shuttle Discovery during STS-103 in December 1999. This was the third servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, and lasted for just under 8 days. His second spaceflight was as mission commander of STS-118, a 12-day space shuttle mission to the International Space Station in August 2007.

Kelly became a long-duration crewmember of ISS on October 9, 2010, after arriving on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. He arrived at the station during Expedition 25, serving as a flight engineer. He took over command of the station on November 25, 2010, at the start of Expedition 26 which began officially when the spacecraft Soyuz TMA-19 undocked, carrying the previous commander of the station, Douglas H. Wheelock.

He currently serves as the International Space Station operations branch chief.