Captain Mark Kelly
U.S. Senator for Arizona / NASA Astronaut Commander
Mark Kelly graduated from Kings Point in 1987, flew 39 combat missions in the Gulf War as a Navy F/A-18 pilot, commanded four Space Shuttle missions including Endeavour's final flight, and was elected U.S. Senator from Arizona in 2020 — one of the most varied and decorated careers in the history of service academy graduates.
Mark Edward Kelly was born on February 21, 1964, in Orange, New Jersey. He and his identical twin brother Scott enrolled at separate service academies — Mark at the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, graduating in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering Systems.
After graduation, Kelly received his commission in the United States Navy and trained as a naval aviator. He flew the A-6E Intruder and later the F/A-18 Hornet, accumulating more than 5,000 flight hours in over 25 aircraft types. During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, he flew 39 combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait from the carrier USS Midway.
In 1996, NASA selected Kelly as a mission specialist in Group 16 — the same group as his twin brother Scott, making them the only twins ever selected together as astronauts. Mark Kelly flew four Space Shuttle missions: STS-108 aboard Endeavour (December 2001), STS-121 aboard Discovery (July 2006), STS-124 aboard Discovery (May–June 2008), and STS-134 aboard Endeavour (May–June 2011), which he commanded — the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. He logged 54 days in space.
In January 2011, Kelly's wife, U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, was critically wounded in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Kelly became a prominent advocate for gun safety legislation. He retired from the Navy as a Captain in 2011 and co-founded the gun safety organization Giffords with his wife.
In 2020, Kelly won a special election for the U.S. Senate from Arizona, filling a seat previously held by the late Senator John McCain. He won re-election to a full six-year term in 2022.
Four Space Shuttle Missions
Mark Kelly flew four Space Shuttle missions, logging 54 days in space. His final mission, STS-134 aboard Endeavour in May–June 2011, was the last flight of that orbiter. He commanded the mission, which delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) to the International Space Station.
Gulf War Combat Veteran
Kelly flew 39 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, demonstrating the operational depth that underpinned his selection for NASA's astronaut corps.
The Kelly Twins
Mark and his twin brother Scott — a Naval Academy graduate — are the only twins in history to have both flown in space. Scott's landmark year-long ISS mission in 2015–2016 made the brothers simultaneously the most-studied twins in human history through NASA's Twin Study.
U.S. Senator
Elected to the U.S. Senate from Arizona in 2020, Kelly represents a direct line from Kings Point's maritime engineering classrooms to the floor of the United States Senate.
Mark Kelly's path to the Senate, NASA, and the carrier deck began at Kings Point, where the Merchant Marine Academy gave him both a maritime license and a Navy commission. The Academy's rigorous engineering curriculum and mandatory year of sea service aboard commercial vessels prepared Kelly for the demanding environments of naval aviation and spaceflight.
The Merchant Marine Academy occupies a unique niche among the service academies in producing graduates who operate at the intersection of commerce and national service — and Kelly embodies that tradition, having served as a master mariner, combat aviator, astronaut commander, and elected senator.
