The Manufacturer’s Association of South Central Pennsylvania snagged another high-profile booking for its annual conference.
Captain Mark Kelly, a former space shuttle commander, will be addressing the trade association’s gathering on April 25 on the campus of Penn State York. Kelly will be focusing “on how to obtain personal success in any competitive setting, and society’s need for new technology and innovation that will move us beyond Planet Earth” according to a statement released by the organization.
Kelly served as commander on several space shuttle missions before his retirement in 2011. According to his official biography from NASA, “Kelly traveled more than 6.5 million miles and orbited the earth 248 times over 15 days, 17 hours, and 38 minutes.”
Kelly’s twin brother, Scott Kelly, is also an astronaut and in 2016 broke multiple records after completing 216 continuous days and over 500 cumulative days in space.
Mark Kelly is also the husband of Gabrielle Giffords, a former Arizona congresswoman who was the target of a failed assassination attempt in 2011. Since surviving the attack, Giffords has devoted her time to advocating for gun control.
Kelly is not the first high-profile booking for the annual gathering of the manufacturer’s association which has previously hosted Steven Forbes and former Florida governor Jeb Bush. In 2016, the group hosted Karl Rove and in 2015 they featured Penn State football coach James Franklin.
