Astronaut Scott Kelly shares a year in space in Santa Barbara

An astronaut since 1996 Captain Scott Kelly recently revealed details on his break through mission of 344 days in space on board the International Space Station.

Kelly spoke at UC Santa Barbara’s Arts & Lectures series at the Granada Theatre. His speech called, “The Sky is Not the Limit: Lessons from a Year in Space,” covered insights to the current space program objectives and possibly a trip to Mars someday. Kelly says it will take over 200 days to get to Mars and research would probably take a year on the planet before the crew would return. 1500 people filled the theater for the event.

Earlier in the day Kelly also spoke to elementary school students who were bussed in to the theater on a field trip. He also made a trip to the honored engineering program at Dos Pueblos High School.

Kelly revealed his life as a student and said he was not the smartest or honored in school, but early in college Kelly began to focus more directly. He said doing small tasks well helped him accomplish the large scale challenges as a Navy pilot and astronaut.

(Captain Kelly was presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures with support from the William Kerns Foundation.)

(photo credit: Time films)