After spending nearly a year circling the globe on the International Space Station, you'd think Scott Kelly would be ready to stay home for a bit. But the new record holder among Americans for longest time in space already is gearing up for another adventure -- on a luxury cruise ship.
Crystal Cruises today will announce that the now-retired NASA astronaut is following his record-setting stint in orbit by headlining a week-long voyage to Alaska on the line's Crystal Serenity. It'll kick off June 26.
"I'm really looking forward to relaxing on the ship ... and sleeping," Kelly quips in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY to discuss the trip. "It's been a very busy year."
Kelly will be joined on Serenity by his twin brother and fellow retired astronaut Mark Kelly as well as his brother's wife, former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Scott Kelly's children and longtime partner also will be aboard.
The Kelly brothers will speak to Serenity passengers in a joint session, part of an enrichment series at Crystal.
"Hopefully the kids will have some fun, and I'm looking forward to some shore excursions," Kelly adds.
Kelly is no stranger to cruising, whether it be on the type of ships with which vacationers are familiar or other vessels. When asked if he's cruised before, the former U.S. Navy aviator jokes that he "was on that big aircraft carrier a few times and went on a couple cruises to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean, but those weren't too fancy."
Kelly served in the North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Persian Gulf aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
As for the sort of cruises that include pool time and pampering, Kelly recalls a voyage to the Bahamas on the SS Rotterdam with his parents out of New York. "It was kind of old school," he notes. More recently, he's been on a Carnival ship out of Galveston, Texas, which is near his home in Houston.
The cabins on the Crystal Serenity, one of the highest rated luxury ships afloat, are bigger and more elaborate than those on Carnival. Not that a small cabin bothers Kelly.
"I lived in a room the size of a telephone booth for a year," he notes.
For a deck-by-deck look at a Crystal ship, scroll through the carousel below.
