James M. Kelly

  • STS- 102 (2001)
  • STS- 114 (2005)

James McNeal "Jim" Kelly ( born May 14, 1964 in Burlington, Iowa, United States ) is an American astronaut.

Kelly grew up in the small town of Burlington, 260 kilometers northwest of the city of St. Louis. In 1982 he graduated from the Burlington Community High School and joined the U.S. Air Force (USAF). The first inhabitants of his village, he was given the opportunity to attend the USAF Academy in Colorado. He studied aerospace engineering with a minor in Engineering and received a bachelor's degree in May 1986.

Then Kelly was trained as an air force pilot, followed by a course on the fighter F-15 "Eagle " on the Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix (Arizona ). Then he was transferred to the U.S. Air Force Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa where he worked as a flight instructor and squadron leader among others.

In April 1992 he returned back to the U.S., first as an instructor at the Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod (Massachusetts ), and later at the test pilot school of the USAF at the Edwards Air Force Base in California, which he completed in June 1994. He then worked as a test pilot at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

Before Kelly was trained as an astronaut, he received a master's degree in aeronautics and aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama in the summer of 1996.

NASA activities

It was Kelly's childhood dream of wanting to be an astronaut. As a five year old he looked spellbound the first steps of Neil Armstrong on the moon and decided also to take up this profession. He single-mindedly focused his career on this: he enrolled at the Air Force Academy, because this offered a nautical astro study that corresponded exactly to the requirements for a successful application to the U.S. space agency. Also, has always been one flying to his passions, which favored the selection to the shuttle pilot. Vegas, as he is called by his comrades, was selected with the 16th group of NASA astronauts in April 1996 and from autumn of the year at the Johnson Space Center (JSC ) is formed in Texas.

After four years in the NASA Kelly was nominated for his first space flight. The Discovery flew in March 2001 under the name STS -102 to the International Space Station (ISS) and led through the first changing of the guard: the Expedition 2 solved the expedition from one who had worked aboard the ISS since October of last year.

STS -114 was the first shuttle flight after the Columbia disaster and was the end of July / beginning of August 2005 carried out. As with its maiden flight Kelly was the pilot of the space shuttle, as the Discovery brought several tons of equipment to the ISS and should ensure that all changes made to the Space Shuttle system functioned as expected.

In September 2007, he resigned as colonel from the U.S. Air Force.

Kelly is married and has four children.

428044
de