The American Astronaut

Lore & Background

The film's plot centers on Samuel Curtis, an astronaut from Earth who deals in rare goods. His mission begins with delivering a cat to a small outer-belt asteroid saloon, where he meets his former dance partner, the Blueberry Pirate. As payment, Curtis receives a homemade cloning device already creating a Real Live Girl. At the Blueberry Pirate's suggestion, Curtis takes the clone to Jupiter, an all-male mining planet, to trade for the Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman's Breast, who is regarded as royalty due to his exotic contact with a woman. Curtis intends to trade the Boy on Venus, a planet populated only by women, for the remains of Johnny R., a human stud, to return to Earth for a reward.

Curtis is pursued by his nemesis, Professor Hess, who is obsessed with forgiving Curtis before killing him. Hess has killed everyone who has come into contact with Curtis. After retrieving the Boy, Curtis hides with him on a primitive space station built by Nevada State silver miners from the late 1800s. There they find crippled miners who have raised a boy named Body Suit in a hydraulic suit to simulate Earth's gravity. Curtis agrees to deliver Body Suit to Earth in exchange for supplies. After crash-landing on Venus, Curtis negotiates with Queen Cloris, presenting Body Suit as a mate to free his ship and obtain Johnny R.'s body. Hess tries to kill Body Suit but cannot because he has a reason. The film ends with Hess stating that Curtis raised the Boy on Earth, while Hess stayed on Venus raising Body Suit, never able to kill him.

Reader's Guide

The American Astronaut is notable as a low-budget independent film that blends space opera with Western tropes and musical numbers, reflecting a unique creative vision. Its release on DVD in spring 2005 helped it reach a cult audience. The film's soundtrack was written and performed by the band Billy Nayer Show, led by director Cory McAbee. The film received recognition at festivals: McAbee won a Special Jury Award at the Florida Film Festival for original vision, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Cinematographer W. Mott Hupfel III was nominated for best Cinematography at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film's eccentric plot—involving cloning, interplanetary trade, and a villain who can only kill without reason—exemplifies its offbeat, independent spirit. It remains a distinctive entry in early 2000s American independent cinema, particularly for its fusion of genres and its handmade aesthetic.

Did You Know?

• The film's soundtrack was written and performed by the band Billy Nayer Show, helmed by director Cory McAbee.
• Cory McAbee won a Special Jury Award at the Florida Film Festival for original vision.
• The film was released on DVD in the spring of 2005.
• The character Professor Hess is capable of killing only without reason—there can be no conflict nor unresolved issues with his intended victim.

Twenty-Five Years in the Cockpit: The Naval Career

Scott Kelly's path to the stars was paved with decades of flight time in the United States Navy. After graduating from SUNY Maritime College with a degree in electrical engineering in 1987, he was commissioned as an ensign and trained at NAS Pensacola on the T-34 Mentor before moving to Beeville, Texas, to fly the T-2 Buckeye and A-4 Skyhawk. He earned his naval aviator wings in 1989 and was assigned to the F-14 Tomcat, first training at VF-101 on Virginia's coast before deploying to the North Atlantic and Persian Gulf aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower with VF-143. In 1993 he was chosen for the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, graduating in 1994 alongside his twin brother Mark and several future astronauts. At the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate, Kelly investigated a fatal F-14 crash and produced an assessment that led to a digital flight control system; he became the first pilot to fly the Tomcat with that system installed. He retired from active duty in June 2012 after 25 years, logging more than 8,000 hours across over 40 aircraft types and completing more than 250 carrier landings.

Four Flights, One Command: The Space Career

Kelly's NASA career spanned four distinct spaceflights, each building on the last. His debut came in December 1999 as pilot of the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-103, a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope that lasted just under eight days. The crew performed three spacewalks to swap out gyroscopes and a transmitter and to install a new guidance sensor and recorder. Eight years later, in August 2007, he commanded STS-118, a twelve-day shuttle flight to the International Space Station. His third voyage began in October 2010 when he arrived at the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-01M as a flight engineer on Expedition 25; he assumed command on November 25, 2010, and led the station through the end of Expedition 26 in March 2011. Between flights he served as NASA's director of operations in Star City, Russia, coordinated debris searches after the Columbia disaster, and led underwater training missions at the Aquarius laboratory off Key Largo. He retired from NASA on April 1, 2016.

A Year Above the Earth: The Long-Duration Mission

In November 2012, NASA selected Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko for a year-long expedition to the International Space Station. The pair launched aboard Soyuz TMA-16M on March 27, 2015, and spent the following months working through Expeditions 43, 44, 45, and 46. Kelly assumed command during Expeditions 45 and 46, making this his third stint as ISS commander. The mission concluded on March 1, 2016, when the duo departed aboard Soyuz TMA-18M. Just one month later, on April 1, 2016, Kelly retired from NASA, closing a career that had carried him from a small New Jersey town to the most remote outpost humanity has maintained. The year in orbit also carried a deeply personal dimension: his identical twin brother Mark, a retired astronaut and the senior U.S. senator from Arizona, had walked a parallel path through the Navy and into space. The two brothers, born on the same day in 1964, had applied to NASA together in 1995 and been selected as astronaut candidates in 1996, becoming the first relatives ever chosen by the agency. Kelly's long-duration flight was a singular moment in which one twin lived the experience while the other watched from Earth.

Twin Roots: Family, Education, and the Road to the Stars

Scott Kelly was born on February 21, 1964, in Orange, New Jersey, the identical twin of Mark. Their parents, Patricia and Richard Kelly, both worked as police officers, and the family lived in nearby West Orange. Of Irish descent, the boys grew up in West Orange; by high school, Scott was already earning his keep as an emergency medical technician in Orange and Jersey City. They graduated from West Orange Mountain High School in 1982. Scott then enrolled at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where a single book — Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff — redirected his ambitions toward naval aviation. He transferred to SUNY Maritime College on a Navy ROTC scholarship, sailed twice aboard the training ship Empire State V (stopping in Mallorca, Hamburg, and London), served as student battalion commander, and graduated in 1987 with a degree in electrical engineering. He later earned a master's in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee. In 1995, Scott and Mark applied to NASA together; in April 1996, both were selected as astronaut candidates, a first in the agency's history.

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