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Mark Kelly: “I knew Neil Armstrong pretty well. I knew Buzz Aldrin pretty…”

Featuring: Mark Kelly, Democratic | U.S. Senate from Arizona

Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure

Published June 10, 2026 | Video Starts at 03:12

Yeah. Yeah. I think your layperson probably thinks, oh, they all know each other. And you probably all don't. We don't. No. But I knew Neil Armstrong pretty well. I knew Buzz Aldrin pretty well. John Glenn. I got to sit next between John Glenn and Neil Armstrong at a dinner once after I was an astronaut. Yeah. (03:12–03:17)

CLAIM

Asserts that Mark Kelly knew Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and John Glenn well.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Mark Kelly

“Imagine if Marcus Aurelius knew that we were one galaxy in a universe of 2 trillion galaxies.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 26:07-26:17
“The only border you actually see that's not a river is the southern part of Israel. Because on one side it's desert, the other side it's…”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 31:41-31:54
“Most of the Canadian population live within 100 miles of the US border.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 32:27-32:33
“I just got into it with the EPA administrator over a smelter in Arizona that emits, I think it was 12 tons of lead into the atmosphere every…”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 39:37-39:51
“The president is suing the federal government for $50 billion.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 41:46-41:50
“We have 13 dead Americans. We got other people who are injured. We got thousands of innocent Iranians that have been killed, including at…”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 48:12-48:23
“In 2011, we were there. The last one we went to was in 2012, a year after [Gabby Giffords] got shot.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 00:26-00:33
“I was just with my daughter Claudia at the McCain Sedona forum.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 00:59-01:05
“I had a 15 year old and a 13 year old there [at the Renaissance weekend].”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 01:25-01:28
“I got to sit next between John Glenn and Neil Armstrong at a dinner once after I was an astronaut.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 03:16-03:25
“It was on the 50th, I think the 50th anniversary of John Glenn's first flight.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 03:34-03:39
“I've had a long career. I used to fly airplanes off of an aircraft carrier.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 05:31-05:36
“I've almost gotten shot down a number of times. I had a missile blow up next to my airplane.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 05:35-05:41
“I've done that 375 times.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 08:15-08:20
“Now lately, over the last decade or so, because of advances in the systems, even like an F18, this thing called magic carpet, which helps…”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 11:07-11:23
“They've improved these systems, so the boarding rate now is really high. It's very rare that somebody bolters or they get waved off.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 12:05-12:14
“We've just transitioned to where people don't even go to the ship before they get their wings anymore.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 12:17-12:23
“What that means they can focus on the mission more.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 12:37-12:41
“We're now much more effective Naval Air Force because of it becoming easier to land on the ship.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 12:49-12:57
“Required under naval rules for aviation, that the grades be displayed.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 13:46-13:53
“By the time we ended the space shuttle program, there was still a lot we did not understand about it.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 18:12-18:18
“The first flight was in 1981. That 108th flight was in 2001, 20 years later.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 18:35-18:45
“To fly the next 30 flights took another decade.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 18:47-18:51
“It was expensive. It also took a lot to get the space shuttle orbiter ready for a mission.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 18:53-19:01
“Basically take it all apart and put it back together every time, which might not have been the smartest thing to do.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 19:00-19:06
“In the space shuttle, we train a lot, thousands of hours.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 20:32-20:36
“I have about 6,000 hours of flight time.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 20:36-20:39
“I probably have as much time in the space shuttle simulator.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 20:40-20:44
“Challenger accident, nothing you can do about it.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 21:14-21:17
“Columbia accident, nothing you could have really done about it.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 21:16-21:20
“Landing on a carrier at night sort of level sets was scary.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 21:39-21:46
“Solid rocket boosters... are supposed to flame out 2 minutes and 5 seconds into the liftoff.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 21:44-22:08
“They're poured to very high tolerances in Ogden, Utah, at a company called Thiocolle.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 21:55-22:03
“We've seen that through a couple thousand years of History.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 27:00-27:04
“You can't see any of those borders from space. With one exception.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 31:29-31:34
“39 trillion. You know, people don't seem to care that it could be 50 trillion.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 34:58-35:04
“AI is going to replace people in certain jobs.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 35:42-35:47
“In Arizona, we had the same issue happen... where the data center came in... didn't get approved because the people didn't want it.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 37:44-38:01
“Right now I'm trying to address that issue within my job in the Senate with legislation to try to set the conditions where the community can…”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 38:05-38:14
“There's technology available to clean the lead and arsenic out of the exhaust.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 39:58-40:05
“This administration set up a process... where they could send a letter to the EPA that then just went right to the White House.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 40:11-40:24
“The waiver was approved. The thing that cleans out the lead and arsenic didn't get put in.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 40:33-40:38
“This president has full control over the base of the Republican Party in a way that no president in my lifetime has ever had, Democrat or…”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 44:55-45:05
“Didn't think the Strait of Hormuz is going to be closed, so gas prices are really, really high.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 48:26-48:32
“Kid gets kicked off of Medicaid and shouldn't have been.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 48:37-48:41
“She can't afford to drive her kid to get the cancer treatments because the round trip is 300 miles and she can't afford to put gas in the…”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 48:59-49:10
“The decision to use combat power to achieve some larger geopolitical outcome or purpose relies with the President.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 51:36-51:47
“Members of the military have a responsibility to follow all lawful orders, you know, written down in the law of war manual and in the ucmj.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 52:43-52:52
“No quarter would be an example of an illegal order.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 55:28-55:33
“Even saying a threat of a war crime is not allowed.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 55:38-55:44
“Destroying an entire civilization would be a war crime. Genocide, threatening genocide is also against the law, laws that we have.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 55:49-56:02
“The thing about science is science doesn't care if you don't believe in science.”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure | Uploaded June 10, 2026 | 1:00:43-1:00:48