NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly To Receive Magellan Award In New York

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Dec 12, 2012, 06:12 ET

HOUSTON, Dec. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Capt. Scott Kelly has been selected to receive the Magellan Award by the Circumnavigators Club of New York on Dec. 14, 2012.

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The award is given to individuals who have circumnavigated the globe for the purpose of making the world a better place. Kelly, along with his twin brother, former astronaut Mark Kelly, will be the 33^rd and 34^th recipients of this award. Past recipients include astronauts Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride and John Glenn.

The awards dinner and ceremony will take place at 6:30 p.m. EST at the Union League Club, 38 East 37^th Street, New York City.

Kelly recently was selected by NASA and its international partners for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station. Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency will accompany Kelly on the mission to collect scientific data important to future human exploration of our solar system. The spaceflight veterans will launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in spring 2015 and return in spring 2016.

Kelly is from West Orange, N.J. He has degrees from the State University of New York Maritime College and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He served as a pilot on space shuttle mission STS-103 in 1999, commander on STS-118 in 2007, flight engineer on Expedition 25 to the International Space Station in 2010 and commander of Expedition 26 in 2011. Kelly has logged more than 180 days in space.

The Circumnavigators Club is devoted to bringing together those men and women who have circumnavigated the globe. The club's purpose is to encourage global fellowship and understanding and provides a forum for intellectual exchange.

SOURCE NASA