Америкалық саяхатшы, астронавт және теңізшінің ғарыш сапары

American politician, astronaut, and Navy captain (born 1964)

The mission was the second of three shuttle missions to carry components of Japan's Kibo laboratory to the ISS. Kibo is Japanese for "hope". The laboratory is Japan's primary contribution to the ISS. Just before liftoff, Kelly said, "While we've all prepared for this event today, the discoveries from Kibo will definitely offer hope for tomorrow. Now stand by for the greatest show on Earth." During the launch, Launch Pad 39A sustained substantial damage, more than had been seen on any previous launch. After liftoff, inspectors discovered that bricks and mortar from the launch pad's base had been thrown as far as the perimeter fence, a distance of 1,500 feet (457 m). Kelly and his crew delivered the pressurized module for Kibo to the ISS. The module is the Kibo laboratory's largest component and the station's largest habitable module. This mission was the first time a spouse of a member of Congress traveled to space. Kelly traveled over 5.7 million miles, and orbited the Earth 218 times over 13 days and 18 hours.]] STS 134 launched on May 16, 2011. On April 29, 2011, the first launch attempt of STS 134 was scrubbed. Giffords traveled to Florida on her first trip since moving from Tucson to Houston in January after an attempted assassination. Her appearance at Kennedy Space Center gave the launch a high profile, "one of the most anticipated in years," according to The New York Times. President Obama visited the Kennedy Space Center on April 29 on a trip with the original intention of watching the Endeavour launch. Kelly was the commander of the mission which was Space Shuttle Endeavour's last. His crew and he delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the ISS. Most of the mission's delays were caused by external tank issues on STS 133 Discovery. When Scott Kelly went to the ISS on October 7, 2010, STS 134 was scheduled to go to the station during his mission. The potential rendezvous in space of the Kelly brothers would have been a first meeting of blood relatives in space. The delay of STS 134's launch ended that possibility. After his wife's shooting, Kelly's status was unclear, but NASA announced on February 4, 2011, that he would remain commander of the mission. The remarkable progress his wife was making in her recovery helped Kelly decide to return to training. Peggy Whitson, chief of the NASA Astronaut Office at the time, said, "we are confident in his ability to successfully lead this mission, and I know I speak for all of NASA in saying 'welcome back.'"

At 4 pm PDT on May 22, 2011, the European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency arranged for a call to Endeavour by Pope Benedict XVI. During his call—prompted by the discovery of a gash in the Shuttle's fuselage—Benedict extended his blessing to Giffords, who had undergone skull surgery earlier in the week. The event marked the first time a pope spoke to astronauts during a mission.

On June 24, 2011, a recorded message by Kelly from the ISS wished his wife love using song lyrics from David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and introduced U2's song "Beautiful Day" on the first night of the Glastonbury festival in England. A similar message from Kelly aboard the ISS was played during U2's 360° Tour concert stop at various locations. It said: "I'm looking forward to coming home. Tell my wife I love her very much. She knows."

On June 21, 2011, Kelly announced that he would leave NASA's astronaut corps and the U. S. Navy effective October 1. He cited Giffords's needs during her recovery as a reason for his retirement.

In 2011, Kelly and Giffords coauthored Gabby: A Story of Courage, Love and Resilience. The book provides biographical information on the couple and describes in detail the assassination attempt on Giffords and her initial recovery. Written in Kelly's voice, it includes a short note by Giffords at the end. Kelly's second book, Mousetronaut: Based on a (Partially) True Story (2012), is a children's book illustrated by C. F. Payne. It was a New York Times number one bestseller and was followed the next year by a sequel, Mousetronaut Goes to Mars. In 2014, Giffords and Kelly coauthored Enough: Our Fight to Keep America Safe from Gun Violence. In 2015, Kelly and Martha Freeman co wrote Astrotwins: Project Blastoff, a fictional story about twins Scott and Mark who build a space capsule in their grandfather's backyard and try to send the first kid into orbit. Kelly dedicated this book to Scott Kelly. The sequel, Astrotwins—Project Rescue, was published in 2016.

Kelly is co founder and strategic advisor of Tucson based high altitude balloon near space exploration company World View Enterprises. He served as Director of Flight Crew Operations beginning in 2013, and was involved in the development of the new craft, as well as its procedures and operations. On March 28, 2012, SpaceX announced that Kelly would be part of an independent safety advisory panel composed of leading human spaceflight safety experts.

In January 2013, Kelly and Giffords started a political action committee, Americans for Responsible Solutions. The organization's mission is to promote solutions to gun violence with elected officials and the general public. The couple say it supports the Second Amendment while promoting responsible gun ownership and "keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people like criminals, terrorists, and the mentally ill." The group claims that "current gun laws allow private sellers to sell guns without a background check, creating a loophole that provides criminals and the mentally ill easy access to guns". In 2016, Americans for Responsible Solutions joined the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and launched a joint organization known as "Giffords".

On February 12, 2019, Kelly announced that he would run as a Democrat in the 2020 United States Senate special election in Arizona. Kelly declined to accept campaign contributions from corporate political action committees (PACs), but did accept thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from corporate executives and lobbyists. The Associated Press called the race for Kelly on November 4, 2020. His election marks the first time since 1953 that Arizona has had two Democratic senators. As the election was a special election, Kelly took office during the 116th Congress, shortly after Arizona certified its election results on November 30, unlike other senators and representatives elected in 2020, who took office at the opening of the 117th Congress on January 3, 2021. Kelly was sworn in at noon on December 2. Kelly is the fourth retired astronaut to be elected to Congress, after John Glenn, Harrison Schmitt, and Jack Swigert.

Kelly won reelection in the November 2022 general election, defeating Republican challenger Blake Masters.

On December 2, 2020, Kelly cast his first Senate vote, a "no" vote on the nomination of Kathryn C. Davis to the United States Court of Federal Claims. On December 9, Kelly voted "no" on a resolution blocking President Donald Trump from selling $23 billion in drones to the United Arab Emirates. Kelly split his vote by voting yes on another resolution blocking F 35 sales to the UAE. Both resolutions failed. In the wake of the January 6 United States Capitol attack, Kelly said that Vice President Mike Pence and Trump's cabinet "have the responsibility to discuss invoking the 25th amendment", Section 4 of which allows the vice president and cabinet to declare the president unable to serve and transfer presidential power to the vice president. Kelly voted to convict in Trump's second impeachment trial, along with 56 other senators.

Kelly has voiced support for climate action, but said he "does not favor" the Green New Deal. The League of Conservation Voters gave him a 97% score in 2021. In 2022, Kelly also advocated for an expansion of oil drilling in the wake of rising gas prices.

Kelly became an outspoken advocate for gun control following the attempted assassination of his wife, former U. S. Representative Gabby Giffords, at the 2011 Tucson shooting.

Kelly supports building on the Affordable Care Act to include a public health insurance option. He opposes Medicare for All.

Of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Kelly has said, "Dreamers are as American as anyone", and has expressed support for it.

Kelly married Amelia Victoria Babis on January 7, 1989. They divorced in 2004. They have two daughters, Claudia and Claire Kelly. Kelly married U. S. Representative Gabby Giffords of Tucson, Arizona, on November 10, 2007, in a ceremony presided over by Rabbi Stephanie Aaron, and attended by his STS 124 shuttle crew and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. Reich toasted: "To a bride who moves at a velocity that exceeds that of anyone else in Washington, and a groom who moves at a velocity that exceeds 17,000 miles per hour." The couple met on a 2003 trip to China as part of a trade mission sponsored by the National Committee on U. S.–China Relations. At the time of their marriage, Kelly lived in Houston, Texas, and said that the longest stretch of time the two had spent together was a couple of weeks. He said that they did not plan to always live that way, but that it was what they were used to. He added, "It teaches you not to sweat the small stuff." putting Kelly in the national spotlight. On February 4, Kelly described the previous month as the hardest time of his life and expressed his gratitude for the enormous outpouring of support, good wishes and prayers for his wife. He said that he believed people's prayers for her helped. One of Giffords's aides informed Kelly of the shooting almost immediately after it happened. He flew from Houston to Tucson with members of his family. En route, the Kellys received an erroneous news report that Giffords had died. "The kids, Claudia and Claire, started crying. My mother, she almost screamed. I just walked into the bathroom, and, you know, broke down." Calling family in Tucson, Kelly found out that the report was false and that she was alive and in surgery. "It was a terrible mistake," Kelly said. "As bad as it was that she had died, it's equally exciting that she hadn't." where she spent five days before moving to TIRR Memorial Hermann, where she continued her recovery and rehabilitation. Giffords and Kelly had spoken dozens of times about how risky her job was. She was afraid that someone with a gun would come up to her at a public event. In an interview filmed just over a week after the shooting, Kelly said, "She has Tombstone, Arizona, in her district, the town that's too tough to die. Gabrielle Giffords is too tough to let this beat her."