Publication date: October 2017
Format: Hardcover (365 pages)
ISBN: 1524731595
Amazon price: $14.99 (Kindle)
Rating: 5/5 stars
Synopsis: Former Navy fighter pilot Scott Kelly’s memoir of his 340 days spent aboard the International Space Station and reflections on his life and career leading to that epic journey that will provide scientific knowledge for years to come.
TL;DR: An excellent read about a remarkable man for fans of science, space, and airplanes, even if you don’t know all that much about them.
Trigger warnings for mention of substance abuse and domestic violence, as well as distress caused to animals aboard the space station (brief)
I received a free copy of this book from Bookish First in exchange for my unbiased review
I think I became first intrigued by the Kelly twins in the summer of 2011 during the U2 360 Tour. Mark Kelly recorded himself quoting one of the most dazzling parts of the song “Beautiful Day” from the space station:
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out
This being only a few months after his wife, Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in the head, he ended his video with the words “Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows.” (cue the feels)
Little did we know at that time that a few years later, his twin brother Scott would set off on a joint mission to spend nearly a full year in space aboard the International Space Station. Since the two are genetically identical, comparing how Scott and Mark age given Scott’s extended period in space and what we can learn from them will help improve how we care for astronauts on shorter missions as well as prepare for longer flights to Mars and beyond.
The book is structured between flashback to Scott’s pre-station years, form when he was a child to his first flights as an astronaut; to details about what he was doing during his time aboard the space station. One of the overarching themes of the book that reached through to my jaded 29-year-old millenial brain was the importance of hard work. Scott was not a good student when he was younger and was on his way to being a college dropout when he decided he wanted to be an astronaut. Instead of giving up once he realized how far behind he was and how much he would have to work up to catch up to his peers, he bucked down hard and worked tirelessly to learn what he needed to know to first transfer schools, then become a Navy pilot, and eventually a NASA astronaut. It was no small feat – he essentially had to repeat a year of college, plus years of memorizing how to fly various planes (including landing on a Naval aircraft carrier at night) and then years of education specific to space flight. It took a lot of hard work to get to where he is today, more than most people are capable of.
My childhood memories are of the uncontrollable forces of physics, the dream of climbing higher, the danger of gravity.
Scott explains a lot of what we’d like to know about being in space without getting too science-y for the casual reader; in fact, he mentions repeatedly that he himself is not a scientist, but a pilot. Again, he still worked hard to learn what he needed to in order to perform various experiments on the station, but you know that for him it was much less fun than steering the shuttle through the atmosphere.
It goes down smooth like your favorite cola
He spends quite a bit of time trying to make us understand exactly how gravity doesn’t exist in space. I mean, I know there really isn’t any, but it’s hard to conceptualize not knowing what’s up or down. If you’re working on a certain wall, then what seems like up to you is the left wall to someone else. And you’re both right.
This might not seem important in some situations, but in others it’s crucial. On one of his three spacewalks, Scott describes trying to repair something at “night” with absolutely no light from the sun, moon, or earth. He looked out through his visor and only saw black – it could have been the black of space or the gaping darkness of the Atlantic ocean. Without anything for your inner ear to grab on to, anything could be up or down. That’s not something that a lot of us can really grasp readily.
There were hard times. He didn’t see his family except through a video screen for ages. He didn’t get to feel rain, or a breeze, or relax into a chair at the end of a long day. There is no such thing as silence, because some machinery is always running in order to keep you alive. There were also good times, like watching how fraternity and friendship fostered between people of different nations bound by such an awesome common cause. In particular, his relationship with the Russian crew is so inspiring when you consider the US’s difficult past with Russia and the current controversy regarding their meddling in our presidential elections. There are times that are a mix of both – a space walk that is a unique opportunity to be vulnerable to the void but also comes with the awareness that the tiniest of wrong moves could send you off into space forever.
side note: He also mentions watching “Gravity” while in space. It’s like when I watched “Taken” a week before I left for my semester abroad.
I could go on and on about how much of a good time this book was. There were a few odd parts – at one point they call a colleague with a French name “Billy Bob” instead of trying to pronounce his correct name, and other jokes that seem somewhat off color. But I guess it’s a reminder that of course everyone is human and you can make incredible contributions to the world while still maybe being a bit behind in other areas of life.
I struggle with non-fiction but this book is broken up well to the point that I could read for both short and long periods at a time depending on my mood. I’d recommend this book to just about anyone with any interest in spaceflight or science.
Other books mentioned in this work: The Right Stuff; Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
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