Mark Kelly, who grew up in West Orange, had an aim of becoming an astronaut. He wanted to put on a NASA spacesuit and launch into the cosmos. Kelly had dreamt of becoming the first person to reach Mars.

However, whether his dream will turn into a reality is something very uncertain. Kelly also has doubts that his aim of reaching Mars someday would ever become possible.

On August 28, Kelly told the West Orange Chronicle, “I can’t say that I ever really seriously thought it would happen. I was a realist, and I think I understood how difficult it is to be selected as an astronaut. I understood that it was very competitive”. So, he added that he was never certain it would become a reality one day. However, he also said that he should try his best to do something so that at least he should be in competition.

Kelly received a number of prestigious awards as a naval aviator, together with the Distinguished Flying Cross, prior to logging over 5,000 hours in a number of different aircraft as a test pilot. It was in 1996, when his dream of becoming an astronaut turned into a reality. He was selected to join NASA. In due course, he became one of just four people to reach the International Space Station on four different events.

In 2011, he retired from NASA so as to take care of his wife Gabrielle Giffords, who is the former Arizona congresswoman, who was attacked in an assassination attempt.