Per Aspera Ad Astra: An experience of meeting a NASA astronaut, Nov 2005

Scott Kelly has been both a US Navy commander and a space-shuttle pilot. In 2005 me (Katerina Strakova) and my friend Ivan Minev (now doing a PhD at Cambridge) had the unique opportunity to invite him to give a talk about his experiences at NASA to the school and university students in London. The event was organized by the Imperial College Astrosoc, an astronomical society run by the students at Imperial College Student Union, and the Outreach Programme.

Scott Kelly giving a talk at Imperial, Nov 2005

Under clear and starry skies on 19 December 1999, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off at 1850 h US Central Time from the Kennedy Space Centre. The shuttle, lighting up the Central Florida coastline as it departed Earth, was carrying Commander Curt Brown, pilot Scott Kelly and five mission specialists on a two-day chase to retrieve the Hubble Space Telescope. At the time of the launch Hubble was sailing over Eastern Africa and had been in hibernation since the loss of a gyroscope in November that year. Two days later Discovery reached a point about half a mile away from directly underneath the telescope, and Kelly and Brown began the delicate and nailbiting process to manually manoeuvre the 110 t shuttle to within a few feet of Hubble, before capturing it with the robotic arm. After three servicing spacewalks the telescope’s re-deployment took place at an altitude of 370 miles and, as the two spacecraft flew over the South Pacific’s Coral Sea, its aperture door opened to the heavens once more.

Six years later, Kelly touched down at Imperial College London to inspire a new generation of scientists to aim for the stars. His message for the audience at a guest lecture organized by the Imperial College Astronomy Society was simple. “There are no limitations to human ambitions and passion for exploration,” he explained, adding that young people needed to see that there is a strong future in science and technology. During the lecture the astronaut, a former test pilot with the US Navy and an electrical-engineering graduate, entertained his audience with his experiences and stories of day-to-day life on a space mission.

The lecture, held in November 2005, was organized with the help of the International Space School Educational Trust. As well as opening up the world of NASA to students at Imperial College, it had a more subtle message for the audience to consider – that when viewed from space, political borders disappear. Also, most of the current space projects are international, involving a wide community of nations and branches of science and technology.

Space missions are a feat of scientific ingenuity, and images show astronauts walking on the Moon, fixing the satellites during spacewalks, playing with moving balls of liquid freely drifting in microgravity, and performing scientific experiments. But Kelly explained how even life’s most mundane activities, such as exercising or going to the toilet, become extremely challenging in space.

Despite the rigours of manned missions, he stressed that the role of astronauts in the space programme is important, adding: “They are a great deal more efficient and adaptable than machines in conducting scientific experiments and observations.” NASA is currently running several programmes that involve a permanent human presence in space, including the International Space Station and future plans to return to the Moon. But this, Kelly revealed, will be a task for the next generation of scientists, engineers and astronauts. “I am too young to have been on any Moon missions and too old to go in the future, but someone in this lecture theatre may do so.”

Kelly's 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 and took over command of the station on November 25, 2010.

During commander Kelly's visit ti Imperial College in 2005 I (KS) had the privilege to interview Scott Kelly (SK) on behalf of the Astrosoc, Felix magazine (Imperial College) and Nexus News (Institute of Physics, UK).

KS: When did you first decide to become an astronaut?

SK: Hmm…decide to be an astronaut? That’s a good question. As a kid I think that was something I was interested in. You know, kids are interested in a lot of things like being an astronaut or a major baseball player in America, and certainly other things as well. When I was getting ready to go to college I decided I wanted to fly aeroplanes in the US Navy, and later I became a test pilot. As a test pilot in the navy I recognized that perhaps I could be competitive in the astronaut selection process.

KS: Was it hard to study to become a pilot and later an astronaut?

SK: I think what’s important is always trying to do your best at whatever you are doing at the time, because you never know later in life what opportunities might present themselves. And if you have done well in your academics and your career then you have a lot more options. For instance, I had really good grades in college, without which I could still have flown in the navy but perhaps not got into test-pilot school. And had I not done well in the test-pilot school, I would still have been a test pilot, but maybe not an astronaut today. So I think it’s important to always try to do your best.

KS: How many times have you flown into space?

SK: Just once. That was on the Hubble Space Telescope mission. I have been an astronaut for about 10 years, but only flew five years ago. I was supposed to fly again about three years ago, and then the [Columbia] accident [happened]. But I am scheduled to as commander of the shuttle mission STS-118.

KS: Were you scared when you first flew into space?

SK: No, I wasn’t scared. I am a little nervous when I’m watching a shuttle launch when I’m not in it. But when I flew I wasn’t scared. I was more nervous that maybe I would make a mistake. You are kinda busy thinking about what you need to do, and then on a shuttle launch they scrub enough times so when you do launch it comes as a surprise.

KS: What has been your most challenging task?

SK: Landing an aeroplane on an aircraft carrier at night. That’s the hardest piloting task, I think. Although I have been the pilot of a space shuttle, it is the commander who lands, so I will land next time. I’m not sure how hard that’s going to be, we will have to see.

KS: What message would you give to students and young people who want to become astronauts in the future?

SK: Well, you know, a couple of messages I think. One is that, as I said earlier, you never know what opportunities are going to present themselves. So it’s good to have a solid background, whether it’s academic or otherwise. The other thing is that the ESA , US and Russian space programmes want people with academic backgrounds in certain fields. It’s technical mostly, like engineering, science, maths, physics, biology…[simply] something technical. What I would suggest, not that you necessarily become an aeronautical engineer, but that you choose something that you like within those fields, because if you like it you tend to do better and be more competitive.

This was a truly unique experience for me awakening all those little childhood dreams about space exploration and becoming an astronaut. I enjoyed every minute of this. The following year, the Outreach Programme invited an entire space shuttle crew led by Scott's twin brother, Mark Kelly, also a NASA pilot and commander. Simply fantastic!!!