Trivia

He is the identical twin brother of astronaut Mark Kelly.

Kelly, divorced, has two children.

Commander Kelly and Russian Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka returned from the ISS and safely landed their Soyuz spacecraft on the Kazakhstand Steppe on March 16, 2011.

On October 7, 2010, Kelly launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft to serve a tour of duty on the International Space Station. He assumed command of Expedition 26, once the Soyuz TMA-19 undocked on November 24, 2010, for five months.

In 2007, Kelly was the Mission Commander on the 119th space shuttle flight, flown on the Endeavour. The mission was designated STS-118. This was the 22nd flight to the space station. The crew successfully added important parts and material to the International Space Station. Kelly supervised a total of four spacewalks. The mission traveled 5.3 million miles in space and was completed in a little over 12 days.

Kelly served as Pilot on the Space Shuttle Discovery, a mission designated STS-103; it was the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission of 1999. This was an 8-day mission in December, during which the crew successfully installed new instruments and upgraded systems on the Hubble. That trip and its scientific capabilities required three space walks. The mission was accomplished in 120 Earth orbits, traveling 3.2 million miles.

As of 2011, Kelly was a veteran of three space flights and had logged more than 180 days in space.

Kelly was selected by NASA in April 1996 and reported to the Johnson Space Center in August of that year. He was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Spacecraft Systems/Operations Branch.

Kelly holds a United States Coast Guard Third Mate's license.

By 2011, Kelly had logged over 4,000 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft and had achieved over 250 carrier landings.

Kelly was the first pilot to fly an F-14 with an experimental digital flight control system installed; and performed subsequent high angle of attack and departure testing.

Kelly joined the ranks of many famous test pilots by flying at the Strike Aircraft Test Squadron, Naval Air Warfare Center in Maryland, flying the F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet.

Kelly was honored with a selection to attend the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in January 1993; he completed training in June 1994.

Assigned to Fighter Squadron 143, Kelly made overseas deployments to the North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Persian Gulf aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69).

Kelly undertook impressive aviation training. After receiving his commission from the State University of New York Maritime College in 1987, Kelly was designated a naval aviator in 1989 at the Naval Air Station in Beeville, Texas. At NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach, he was excellent at F-14 Tomcat training.

He is an Associate Fellow, Society of Experimental Test Pilots and Member, Association of Space Explorers.

Kelly earned a Master of Science degree in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1996.

Kelly graduated from Mountain High School, New Jersey, in 1982; he received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the State University of New York Maritime College in 1987.

Brother-in-law of Gabrielle Giffords.

He and his identical twin brother, Mark Kelly, were inducted into the 2017 New Jersey Hall of Fame in the Public Service category.

Set a space record after spending 340 consecutive days in orbit aboard the International Space Station (ISS). (2017)

Uncle of Claudia Kelly and Claire Kelly.