Former astronaut shares leadership perspective at San Joaquin Valley Town Hall

To broaden the intellectual perspective of Fresno County, San Joaquin Valley Town Hall began a monthly series of lectures given by a variety of speakers in 1937. This month, Captain Scott Kelly, a former NASA astronaut, opens Fresno’s 2017/18 Town Hall season.

Captain Kelly is well-known for spending a year in space, the longest of any NASA astronaut,520 days in space, the most among U.S. astronauts. He was part of a special program that was designed to test the impact of living in space for a year. This was done in the International Space Station (I.S.S.) which is approximately the size of a large four-bedroom house.

The NASA program was especially significant because Captain Kelly has a twin brother Captain Mark Kelly, who is a former astronaut as well. This study allowed scientists to examine the effects of space long-term space exposure more accurately, as they had two subjects to compare whom were biologically similar. 

Although there have been many astronauts throughout history, few have come near to the amount of time that Captain Kelly has spent in space in one consecutive rotation. Notable among the long list of Captains Kelly’s accomplishments was his term as the commander of Expedition 26.

When Captain Kelly spent the year in space he lived with Russian Cosmonaut, Mikhail Kornienko. Captain Kelly shared his experience of working and living with someone from another country.

“I think that cultural diversity or just diversity, in general, makes us a stronger team,” Captain Kelly said. “We were fortunate to have the Russians as our partner. If we didn’t we wouldn’t be able to retire the Space shuttle when we did and move on to build another rocket; so having people from different countries involved is very important. 

In addition to his experiences with people from other countries, Captain Kelly also saw the Earth from a bird’s eye view. He posted many of these images on his social media. Kelly talked about some of his experiences while in space.

“The Bahamas are always pretty spectacular because it’s a very blue water over a large area,” Kelly said. But there are other parts of the Earth that are incredible; mostly water and deserts. Unfortunately, the places that are really beautiful on the ground don’t necessarily transmit through the atmosphere all that well Yosemite for instance.”

Captain Kelly’s speech focused on the value of doing hard things and working diligently to achieve your goals. To demonstrate this point, Kelly spoke of his mother, who trained for months to become a police officer. He went on to describe how his mother practiced until she succeeded in becoming one of the first female police officers in the community she served.

Another example that Captain Kelly used was his journey to become an astronaut even though he was not always a strong student.

“Growing up I was a really bad student,” Kelly said. “I know it’s hard to believe, you probably think he’s an astronaut he’s probably had straight A’s his whole life and was an overachiever. Growing up I was the exact opposite. I spent more time looking out the window or looking at the clock willing it to run faster than I ever did pay attention in class.”

This was changed by an experience that he had in college.

“One day I’m just walking across campus and I went to the bookstore to buy gum or something… potato chips, I don’t know,” Kelly said. “I go in there and I see this book on the shelf, it’s got a red white and blue cover, very patriotic. The title showed motion in a very positive direction that made me pick it up.

“I took this book off the shelf and I started looking through it,” Kelly continued, “It interested me enough that I took my gum money and spent it on that book. I went back to my dorm room and spent the next few days on my unmade bed and read what might have been the first book that I had ever spent any money on. The book was ‘The Right Stuff‘ by Tom Wolfe.”

Kelly also expressed his gratitude to Wolfe in a letter he sent the author from space–a kind of extraterrestrial thank-you.

This book inspired Kelly to become an astronaut. He achieved this through persistence and making small steps towards a large goal. After reading this book, Kelly switched colleges and joined the Navy where he became a test pilot. From there, Kelly applied to become an NASA astronaut and was accepted.

This message was something that Kelly stressed as key to achieving success. He also gave his advice to students aspiring to be astronauts.

“If you want to be an astronaut with NASA, it has certain degree and background requirements,” Kelly said. “You should go into one of those fields that qualify; however I would say to do something you like. Don’t become a military pilot just because you think it will help you become an astronaut.”

If you would like to learn more about NASA visit their website at nasa.gov. For more information on Captain Scott Kelly, visit his site at scottkelly.com. For more on Commander Scott Kelly, be sure to read his memoirs in book form. Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Deckle Edge will be on sale Oct. 17, 2017.

For more Feather Town Hall articles, read Lisa Genova educates Fresno audience or Dave Barry gives insight, entertains through comedy.

For more articles, read Homecoming for Humanity, Oct. 2-6 or  School is what YOU make it.

The author used these sources for the article, Space.com and nasa.gov.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @MatthewSue1 and via email: Matthew Sue.