Endurance

Endurance: My Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery (2017) is Scott Kelly’s personal memoir recounting his record-breaking year aboard the International Space Station. Having undergone four spaceflights and become the American record holder for the most consecutive days spent in space, Kelly has experienced extreme circumstances. Taking us back to his New Jersey childhood, Kelly tells of the youthful inspiration that set him on the path of his astounding career. His book also details the intense challenges of long-term spaceflight, as well as the devastating physical and psychological effects of prolonged time in space. Finally, Kelly makes clear that Mars is humanity’s next frontier of spaceflight.

The narrative is split between Kelly’s personal journey from an inspired child to a decorated naval test pilot and his year in space, a zero-gravity voyage of unparalleled duration. He opens the book speaking about the early motivations that shaped his unique career path. School was not his strong suit. He graduated from a New Jersey high school in the bottom half of his class. As a somewhat unfocused college student, he was more interested in partying than in sitting in the classroom. Then, Kelly read The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction classic describing the exciting dangers of spaceflight. He was instantaneously drawn to the book’s young superstar hotshots, who catapulted off aircraft carriers, tested unstable planes, and drank hard. Kelly gradually altered course with his classes and changed to a military-oriented school.

Another inspiration Kelly notes, after which his book was named, is Endurance by Alfred Lansing, which tells of Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to the South Pole. During this trek, Shackleton’s crew barely escaped with their lives after their ship became ensnared in polar pack ice. They were forced to traverse 850 miles of sea on small lifeboats.



Within a few years, Kelly was a naval aviator flying off aircraft carriers and soon became a test pilot. In 1995, he filled out a NASA application and was accepted into the biggest astronaut class in NASA’s history, which numbered forty-four in all, including his twin brother, Mark. Within four years, Kelly was aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Although his dream had been to pilot the space shuttle, he reluctantly agreed to remain on the station for a duration of six months in 2010­–2011. At the time, the shuttles were decommissioned, and he was flying on a Russian Soyuz. This experience qualified him for a repeat performance. This time, however, it would be an entire year with personal quarters on the station that were no larger than an old-fashioned phone booth.

Along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, Kelly was part of a study that hoped to glean information about the long-term effects of space isolation on the body and mind. Sure to mention the camaraderie between the men, Kelly details some of the astronauts’ rituals, including one that follows on from Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who, in 1961, became the first human to journey into space. He peed on the right rear tire of his launchpad bus before entering his capsule, and every cosmonaut and astronaut has since done the same for good luck (women bring along a bottle of urine to splash onto the tire).



The year is slow for Kelly. Thirteen other cosmonauts and astronauts would arrive and depart as he and Kornienko remained, each handling his separate duties in their respective modules. Kelly underwent a few spacewalks required for repairs, dissected rodents in an effort to study the effects of spaceflight on mammal physiology, and grew plants and lettuce to test whether fresh food would be possible for travelers to Mars.

The author reminds us of the multitude of challenges—some of which are mundane and others quite extraordinary—of the cosmic frontier. Such tribulations include burned-out light bulbs, the persistent hum of equipment, mold and dust, the loss of bone mass, and the periodic flashes witnessed when a cosmic ray passes through your eyes.

Among the more dangerous hazards, during his time in space, three unmanned supply ships exploded after launch, forcing those in the space station to ration for a time. Even more terrifying is the space junk, such as old satellites, that flies around the Earth at thousands of miles per hour. While most are tracked, Kelly recounts a moment when a bit of junk was sighted almost too late, forcing him to spend ten excruciating minutes in the Soyuz capsule.



Kelly notes some improvements needed in space travel. For example, he explains that the finicky system that deals with carbon dioxide could put a Mars crew in significant danger. He also states that a broken toilet that could not be fixed could mean death for the crew. Kelly also fills the book with fascinating facts, revealing that objects that have been exposed to space have a unique burned metal smell—the “smell of space.”

Kelly ends the book by making a case for the future of spaceflight. He states that it will be extremely difficult, incredibly expensive, and may cost human lives. However, he is optimistic about the possibilities it will create and discoveries that will be made.