Inspirational and Awe-Inspiring Journey of Astronaut Scott Kelly

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"Attempting something difficult was the only way to live. If you were doing something safe, something you already knew could be done, you were wasting time."

Scott Kelly’s memoir Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery tells the inspirational and awe-inspiring story of his journey from an unmotivated kid growing up in New Jersey to one of the most recognized astronauts of our day.

Endurance, in my opinion, is the right blend of science and humanity. Scott Kelly’s story was informative and evocatively told, alternating between his year-long stay on the International Space Station and exploring the events in his life that led him to that moment.

I was particularly intrigued by this book because all I knew of Scott Kelly was that he was the astronaut who spent a year in space to study the effects it had on the human body, with his twin brother, Mark Edward Kelly, as the control back on Earth. This book was well-worth the read.

Scott Kelly’s story is one of determination and grit. After watching his mother successfully become a police officer during his childhood, he was inspired by her strength and motivation to work hard and achieve her goal to pass both the written and physical tests. However, it wasn’t until it was in college, when he was adrift and didn’t know where he wanted to go in life, that he read Tom Wolfe’s book The Right Stuff about early test pilots and astronauts in America, which made him realize that he could do anything he set his mind to.

He wanted to become a Navy pilot, so he did.

He wanted to fly a fighter jet, so he did.

He wanted to become an astronaut and fly a rocket, so he did.

Concurrent with his upbringing, he also writes about the everyday challenges faced in space, aboard the International Space Station. From living in close-quarters with other astronauts to adapting to live in zero gravity to being hundreds of miles away from loved ones for extended periods of time, being an astronaut is not all glamorous. But it’s so, so important for scientific advancement and even for healing relationships among nations, no matter how temporary.

Although space can be cruel, Kelly’s message is one of hope.

"In a world of compromise and uncertainty, this space station is a triumph of engineering and cooperation. Putting it into orbit – making it work and keeping it working – is the hardest thing that human beings have ever done, and it stands as proof that when we set our minds to something hard, when we work together, we can do anything, including solving our problems here on Earth."