Astronauts Who Became Senators
NASA Astronauts who have become US Senators
There have been multiple senators to join Congress after retiring from NASA and end up being classified as Astronaut-Politicians.
Astronaut-politicians are individuals who have ventured into politics after a career as an astronaut. Despite the growing number of people who have traveled to space, astronauts continue to be highly recognized by the public, and those aspiring to a career in politics have capitalized on their popularity to run for higher-level elected positions.
Astronaut Mark Kelly
Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and Democratic candidate, was elected by Arizona on November 3 to serve out John McCain’s six-year term in the Senate, which concludes in January 2023. Before his astronaut career, Kelly served as a test pilot and captain in the U.S. Navy, completing four missions to the International Space Station before retiring from both the Navy and NASA in 2011. In February 2019, Kelly announced his candidacy for the Senate, focusing his campaign on science and his unique perspective as an engineer who has seen Earth from space. He is now the fourth astronaut to be elected to Congress. Kelly is married to former Arizona representative Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011. According to political strategist Chuck Coughlin, Kelly was the Democrats' strongest candidate for the U.S. Senate, as being an astronaut remains a coveted and impressive occupation.
Astronaut John Glenn
John Glenn, a Marine pilot and test pilot who became the first American and third person to orbit the Earth in 1962, was the first astronaut to transition to politics. In 1964, Glenn ran for congressional seats in Ohio but was initially defeated by rival Democrat Howard Metzenbaum in the primaries, first due to a head injury and then in later campaigns. However, in 1974, Metzenbaum's campaign speech claiming that Glenn, who had served in the Marine Corps for two decades, had never held a real job, backfired. Four days before the primary election, Glenn delivered a memorable speech that proved pivotal. Glenn passionately defended his military service, saying, "You go with me as I went the other day out to a veteran's hospital, look at those men out there with their mangled bodies in the eye and tell them they didn't hold a job." Glenn won the primary by a significant margin and went on to win the general election, serving Ohio in the Senate from 1974 to 1999 for four consecutive terms. In 1998, at the age of 77, Glenn made history again as the oldest person to go to space for a nine-day study on aging.
Astronaut Harrison "Jack" Schmidt
Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, the Apollo 17 lunar module pilot, was the next astronaut elected to Congress after Glenn. In 1977, he was elected to the Senate from New Mexico, as reported by Robert Z. Pearlman for Space.com. Schmitt had walked on the moon as one of the last two people in 1972. Unfortunately, Schmitt only served one term in the Senate and gained a reputation for his abrasive and out-of-touch personality, earning him the nickname "Moonrock" from his colleagues in Congress, according to the Atlantic. During his bid for reelection, Schmitt's opponent used an advertisement asking voters, "What on Earth has [Schmitt] done for you lately?" to win the election.
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Harrison "Jack" Schmidt at NASA
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Astronaut John "Jack" Swigert
John "Jack" Swigert became the third astronaut elected to Congress, and the first to the House of Representatives, in 1982, representing Colorado. Swigert was a last-minute addition to the Apollo 13 crew, replacing Thomas Mattingly as the command module pilot just three days before the mission due to Mattingly's exposure to measles. Unfortunately, Swigert never had the chance to serve as a Representative because he passed away from cancer in December 1982, just before taking office.
Other astronauts who have run for Congress include Al Worden, the command module pilot for Apollo 15, Jay Buckey, payload specialist for STS-90, and José Hernández, mission specialist and engineer for STS-128. However, they were unsuccessful in their bids, either in the primary or general elections, according to Space.com.
In addition to astronauts who have become politicians, two members of Congress, Senator Jake Garn from Utah and Representative Bill Nelson from Florida, also traveled to space as congressional observers in the 1980s, before the Challenger tragedy.
Mark Kelly, the latest astronaut-turned-politician, believes that politics should be about working together to solve problems and improve people's lives. As he wrote on Twitter in September, "When you’re up in space looking down at the round blue ball we call Earth, it becomes pretty clear that we’re all in this together."
