English: Former President George H.W. Bush discusses life in space with station crew

February 11, 2016

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA discussed Kelly’s year-long mission and research aboard the orbital laboratory during a conversation on Feb. 5 with former President George H.W. Bush, who paid a visit to the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Kelly is a “noted shutterbug,” according to the former president, and he couldn’t wait to hear about his photos.

“Every time I think I’ve seen everything Earth has to offer, I am just surprised one more time,” Kelly said. “It’s so beautiful — we can’t help it.”

Bush was accompanied in mission control by Kelly’s twin brother, Mark Kelly, and his wife, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The linkup comes less than four weeks before Scott Kelly’s return to Earth with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos, which will complete a year-long mission designed to gather valuable biomedical data that will be used in the formulation of a human mission to Mars. Scott Kelly and Kornienko are scheduled to land in a Soyuz spacecraft on the steppe of Kazakhstan on March 1.