NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly released his first-ever NFT. Scott Kelly has been popularly known as the NASA astronaut who spent the longest time period of 340 consecutive days on the International Space Station in 2015 and 2016.
Dreams Out of This World is the title of Kelly's first-ever NFT, which is an art project he is working on.
The NASA astronaut hopes for two things with his NFT release. First, to inspire individuals to reach for the stars with their goals, dreams, and ambitions.
Second, to be able to donate the proceeds in hopes of helping Ukraine's donation effort as they continue to battle Russia's specialized military operations.
NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly's NFT
Scott Kelly's Dreams Out of This World NFT is a project in collaboration with Orange Comet, a content creation studio that helped Kelly materialize his first-ever launch.
There are more than a few series of pieces in the NFT collection that show Kelly in space with a variety of different versions of the Earth in the background. A portion of Kelly's spaceflight memorabilia, as well as some of his personal belongings, were put up for auction today (April 12) in honor of the International Day of Human Spaceflight, which commemorates cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's historic 1961 orbital mission.
On the NFT marketplace OpenSea, the auction was scheduled to run for three days, with the winner being announced on the third day. However, the entire collection sold out in a matter of hours, raising more than $500,000 for the cause.
The retired NASA astronaut tweeted: "I'm proud to announce that my NFT collection is officially sold out on @opensea Thank you to everyone who supported this project! In the midst of this war, it's amazing that we can come together through art to aid the people of Ukraine. Over $500,000.00 raised today!"
I'm proud to announce that my NFT collection is officially sold out on @opensea
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) April 12, 2022
Thank you to everyone who supported this project! In the midst of this war, it's amazing that we can come together through art to aid the people of Ukraine. Over $500,000.00 raised today! pic.twitter.com/YnO9VUeiLS
According to Space.com, Scott Kelly wants to inspire a lot of people with this art collection, as his journey of being an astronaut was not the typical one. Kelly stated, "My story is not the typical astronaut story. I was a bad student growing up - didn't do well in school, kind of a daydreamer,"
He added, "I found inspiration in a book, which is Tom Wolfe's 'The Right Stuff. So I really, really believe in this idea that inspiration, done in the right way for the right person at the right time, can have extraordinary results."
NFT Proceeds Goes to Ukraine
NFT sales of the Dreams Out of This World will go directly to a non-profit organization. Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), a nonprofit organization that assists disaster-stricken nations and communities, will receive 100% of the net proceeds from this initial drop to support their efforts in Ukraine.
GEM was appreciative of the NASA astronaut as he chose the organization as an instrument to help Ukraine. GEM is deeply grateful for each and every effort that is made to support and help Ukraine in the midst of extreme disasters and crises.
Michael Capponi, GEM president and founder, stated that:
"Every donation, creative endeavor, organization, and partner plays a huge role in the sustained success of the longstanding relief efforts we are able to provide as a non-governmental organization, and we thank Scott and his team for their gracious donation and creative efforts to support and provide aid."
Astronaut Scott Kelly
Scott Kelly previously held the record for the longest time spent in space by an American astronaut on the International Space Station, totaling 340 days. However, just recently, this record was broken by Mark Vande Hei, who spent 355 days in space consecutively.
The efforts of Kelly to support Ukraine through its donation drive do not come as a shock to most people who are following the NASA astronaut. He has since been extremely vocal about opposing the geopolitical onslaught ignited by Russia.
Kelly was one of the NASA astronauts who voiced their displeasure to Russia's Roscosmos after they threatened not to return his fellow NASA astronaut, Vande Hei, to Earth.
