Mark Kelly knows a thing or two about flying high—both literally and otherwise. As a NASA astronaut, he was part of four space shuttle missions between 2001 and 2011, amassing more than 54 days in space and covering more than 22 million miles. Now he's a Senator from Arizona who is on the short list to be Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate.
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00:00Mark Kelly is on the shortlist of names being considered as running mates for
00:09Kamala Harris in the upcoming election. Kelly supporters argue that there is
00:14nothing cooler than an astronaut on the ballot as a NASA astronaut. Kelly was
00:27part of four space shuttle missions from 2001 to 2011, spending more than 54 days
00:34in space and covering 22 million miles. Time featured Mr. Kelly and his twin
00:41brother Scott in a series called A Year in Space, following Scott as he spent a
00:47year aboard the International Space Station, allowing scientists to examine
00:52the differences in physical health between two genetically identical people.
00:56But time in space has never been a surefire win with American voters. While
01:02Mr. Kelly is already a senator from Arizona, three other astronauts have run
01:07for and attained high office, and two others fizzled before they ever reached
01:13electoral orbit. Far and away the most successful astro-politico was Ohio
01:24Democrat John Glenn, who served four terms in the U.S. Senate after becoming
01:29the first American to orbit the Earth.
01:31When I was on top of that booster down there getting ready to go, it wasn't Star
01:35Trek or Star Wars, I can guarantee you that. It was representing the future of
01:39this country. But it was not a straight line from space to the Capitol. After his
01:44first mission to space made him a national hero, Glenn was quietly pulled
01:49from the NASA flight rotation after President Kennedy concluded that he
01:53could not risk Glenn's life on a second mission. It requires physical and moral
01:59stamina to equal the stresses of these times, and a willingness to meet the
02:05dangers and the challenges of the future. John Glenn throughout his life has
02:11eloquently portrayed these great qualities. Chafing at the role of
02:16ground pounder, Glenn resigned from NASA and retired from the Marine Corps in
02:211964, setting his cap for the U.S. Senate. Barely a month into his campaign, however,
02:29he took a fall in an empty bathtub while trying to repair a mirror, suffering
02:34inner ear damage and a serious concussion. Glenn pulled the plug on that
02:39campaign. He tried for the Senate again in 1970, losing to Ohio businessman
02:46Howard Metzenbaum, who himself went on to lose in the general election. In 1974,
02:52Metzenbaum and Glenn faced off again, and this time, after a decade of trying, Glenn
02:59prevailed. He was helped in no small measure by a case of flagrant political
03:04malpractice when Metzenbaum accused the astronaut and war hero of never having
03:09held an actual job. In their next debate, Glenn recited his record in World War II
03:15and Korea, along with his 149 combat missions. He also invoked the deaths of
03:22men less fortunate than himself, including astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed
03:27White and Roger Chaffee, who perished in the Apollo 1 spacecraft fire on January
03:3327, 1967. Over his 24 years in the Senate, Glenn served as chairman of the
03:40Committee on Government Affairs. He also served as a member of the Foreign
03:44Relations and Armed Services Committees and participated in more than 9,500
03:50roll call votes. But his career was not without its blemishes. In 1984, he joined
03:56a crowded field of Democrats taking on the suicide mission of running for their
04:01party's presidential nomination to face the immensely popular Ronald Reagan in
04:07the November election. Glenn finished fifth in the Iowa caucuses and near the
04:19back of the pack in New Hampshire and on Super Tuesday and was out of the race by
04:24March. Nevertheless, he ran for and won a fourth term in 1992 before deciding to
04:32retire at the end of that term. In a conversation I had with him in 1998, he
04:38said there was much he would miss about the Senate, but not the ritualized
04:42humiliation of constant fundraising, which he described as a stinking
04:47miserable way to run your life. In October 1998, Glenn capped his career
04:53with a second trip to space aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At 77, he was and
04:59remains the oldest person ever to fly in space. Astronaut Harrison Schmidt did
05:15not have the storied political career Glenn enjoyed. A geologist before
05:20becoming an astronaut, he became the twelfth out of twelve men to set foot on
05:24the moon during the mission of Apollo 17 in December of 1972. In 1976, he ran as
05:32a Republican for a Senate seat in New Mexico. He easily won his primary contest
05:38and went on to trounce the Democratic incumbent Joseph Montoya, winning 24 of
05:44the state's 32 counties. But the good times were short-lived for Schmidt. He
05:50lasted just a single term in the upper chamber, during which he served as
05:54chairman of the Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee. He lost his
05:59reelection bid to State Attorney General Jeff Bingaman, who charged that Schmidt
06:04had not sufficiently attended to the needs of New Mexicans, and asked
06:08pointedly, what on earth has he done for you lately? Not enough, New Mexicans
06:14decided, turning Schmidt out by a count of 54% to 46%. For Jack Swigert, things
06:32were even tougher, as bad luck seemed to stalk his career. Both of his careers,
06:37actually. In 1970, he served as command module pilot aboard Apollo 13, the
06:44mission that was aborted when an explosion crippled the mothership when
06:48the crew was 200,000 miles from Earth. Swigert and his crewmates Jim Lovell and
06:54Fred Hayes barely escaped, but made it home safely. In 1978, Swigert ran for a
07:00Senate seat in Colorado, but was defeated during the primary. In 1982, Colorado was
07:07awarded a sixth congressional district, one that encompassed Swigert's Denver
07:13home. He ran for the seat, but during the campaign, he was diagnosed with bone
07:17cancer. His diagnosis was made public, as was his doctor's prognosis that the
07:23disease was beatable. It wasn't. Swigert won, but on December 27th, 1982, exactly a
07:31week before he would have been sworn in, he died. Today, a statue of Swigert in his
07:38Apollo 13 spacesuit, with his helmet held jauntily by his side, stands in
07:44Denver International Airport. Two other astronauts, Jack Lousma, who flew aboard
07:50Skylab and the Space Shuttle, and Jose Hernandez, another shuttle astronaut, ran
07:56for the Senate and House, respectively. Both lost, and both retired from politics
08:02after that. Space and politics are high-stakes ventures with steep odds of
08:08making the professional cut. Mark Kelly knows that, at least as well as any of
08:13the people who preceded him in both fields. If Harris picks him and they win
08:18in November, Kelly will have risen higher than any other astronaut-turned
08:23politician in American history. If he misses out on the veep stakes, the
08:28popular lawmaker who won his 2022 election comfortably will at least have
08:33his Senate seat to keep him warm.