Sen. Mark Kelly on His Induction into Astronaut Hall of Fame — and Whether He'd Go Back to Space (Exclusive)

The astronaut-turned-U.S. senator returned to the Kennedy Space Center for a milestone moment last week, describing the experience — and the state of space exploration — to PEOPLE

Sen. Mark Kelly's visit to the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday was a homecoming of sorts for the former astronaut, who last visited Cocoa Beach, Florida, in 2011 after commanding the Space Shuttle Endeavor.

"I'll never forget the day after I landed the space shuttle in 2011, my kids and I were on a bus leaving Florida to fly back to Houston," Kelly, 59, tells PEOPLE. "I said, 'Kids, say goodbye to Cocoa Beach. This will be the last time you will ever see Cocoa Beach ever again.'"

Now more than a decade later, Kelly returned to the space center, but this time not to pilot an aircraft.

On Saturday, the Arizona senator was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame, a moment made all the more special with the attendance of his wife, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, and his family members (including his brother and fellow former astronaut, Scott Kelly, and his granddaughter, Sage).

"It’s great to have Gabby and my brother and my kids and my granddaughter here," Kelly tells PEOPLE, "but also my crew members that came back — six or seven guys I flew with."

He continues: "It's one thing to be recognized, but to be recognized by your peers is a whole different kind of recognition."

"I will say that anybody who climbs into a pressure suit and straps themselves to the top of a rocket deserves some recognition," he adds with a laugh.

RELATED: Mark Kelly Opens Up on His Role in the Senate and Life with Wife Gabby Giffords

These days, the former astronaut and retired U.S. Navy captain has traded the pressure suits for business suits and ties. In 2020, Kelly — a Democrat — flipped the Arizona Senate seat held by Republican Martha McSally, easily clinching reelection in 2022.

Since then, he's pursued a number of ambitious priorities, such as helping to negotiate a landmark deal that would lower prescription drug prices for seniors and backing new limits on lawmakers making stock trades.

He's also made a point of speaking out on gun violence — something that's personal for Kelly and his wife, Giffords, who was shot and nearly killed in 2011.

But he hasn't lost sight of space, saying he's a big proponent of the Biden administration's commitment to the Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024.

"I was glad that the president kept the plan from the Trump administration," Kelly says. "I think this the right thing to do — to allow NASA the runway they need. We will benefit as a country from these Artemis missions."

Though Kelly himself isn't on the congressional committee prioritizing the program, he expects he'll be involved in the program in some capacity — or at least watch from afar.

RELATED: Sen. Mark Kelly and Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords Welcome First Grandchild: So 'Proud'

He is, however, on the Senate Armed Services subcommittee that recently heard updates on a slew of unexplained encounters between military aircraft and unidentified flying objects.

"There are things that have been observed from some really sharp individuals — fighter pilots in the Navy, for instance," Kelly says. "Stuff that warrants further investigation."

The former astronaut isn't convinced, however, that the sightings are extra-terrestrial. It's more likely, he says, that the strange sightings are the result of a foreign adversary.

"Whether this means we’ve got visitors from somewhere else, I'm not convinced of that yet," he says. "Sometimes humans make very rapid technological advancement forward. Think of Orville and Wilbur Wright or Wernher von Braun with the first rocket. Even more recently — think of Chat GPT or Open AI. One of the things we need to do is understand whether one of our adversaries has made a technological leap."

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As for his own leaps forward, Kelly — who retired from NASA in 2011 — is for now busy with life in Congress. Still, he doesn't rule out another out-of-this-world journey in the future.

"Given the opportunity, yes," he says when asked if he would return to space. "Will I get the opportunity? That remains to be seen."

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