Vice President Kamala Harris is carry to be the Democratic campaigner for the USpresidential electionthis year . With her running play , the question now is who could be the potential vice president on the ticket . Many names have been put forward . Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg , Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer , and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper have been paint a picture , just to name a few . And among the list of likely options , there is also former astronaut Mark Kelly .
Mark Kelly became the junior senator for Arizona in the special election of 2020 follow the last of John McCain . He was return in 2022 for a full term , but Kelly had not been a unknown to politics before then . He is matrimonial toGabby Giffords , who was first a representative and then a senator in Arizona , and then a US representative for just over three footing . At the kickoff of her third term , on January 8 , 2011 , Giffords was shot in the head during an assassination endeavour that go forth six stagnant and 15 injure .
Giffords recuperate , and she and Kelly crusade for stern background checks on gun owners . Senator Kelly crawl in from NASA in the wake of the shooting to serve Giffords with her recovery . He commanded his last mission in May 2011 , before hang up his spacesuit for salutary the following calendar month . In total , Kelly has spent 54 days in outer space , flying on multiple space shuttle mission . Kelly was at NASA for 15 years , selected with his identical twinned chum Scott Kelly , who is now also retired . They are the only siblings who have ever travel to blank .
Senator Kelly and his brother allow an priceless Robert William Service to human spaceflight beyond their active service . They took part in atwin study , allowing medical researchers to evaluate theeffect of spaceon the human body . Scott Kelly spent more than 11 months between 2015 and 2016 in space , and they had a middling good controller sample in Senator Kelly who stay on Earth .
Kelly is not the only astronaut - reverse - political leader in the US.John Glenn , the first American to orbit Earth , was a senator for nearly 25 year from 1974 . In 1976 , Harrison " Jack " Schmitt also became a senator . Schmitt is the only geologist to have walked on the Moon – and the only person we know to beallergic to Moon debris .
Other space travelers from across the earthly concern have turned to politics . Some political leader , such as former Senator Jake Garn and current NASA decision maker Bill Nelson , fly into space while in office . But becoming Veep would be a record book for Kelly against all the other astro - politicians .
