Grant Kelly

Grant Kelly is the biological father of Judy Robinson in Netflix's 2018 television series Lost in Space.

He was the commander of the Fortuna, a ship believed to have been lost twenty years before the events of the series. ("Ninety-Seven") Kelly was also first human on Mars and first human to leave the solar system.

History[]

Grant was born in Detroit, Michigan and got a scholarship to MIT when was only 17 years old. He graduated top of his class. He joined NASA and went on missions to the Moon and Mars. He was the first person on Mars, as well as the first one to leave the solar system. He was one of the first people to work on the Alpha Centauri program. He had a relationship Maureen Robinson and was believed to have died before his daughter Judy was born after his ship, the Fortuna, went missing.

While his mission was supposedly an early exploration of Alpha Centauri, in reality, his true mission had been to explore the other side of a rift in space which was created by an Alien Engine, although NASA didn't know that at the time. Grant and his crew became stranded over the shattered planet. Most of the crew went into stasis and their lander carrying their cryotubes set down on the planet below.

On December 21, 2044, an unidentifed Robot locates the Fortuna and enters the lander where it scans Grant. From the scan, the Robot learns the location of Earth, but it leaves Grant unharmed rather than killing him. ("Final Transmission")

Plot[]

In searching for Alpha Centauri, the crew of the Resolute pick up what they believe to be a signal from a Jupiter ship, which they take as the coordinates for the colony on Alpha Centauri. Judy and the children aboard the evacuating Jupiter ship jump to the location, only to instead discover they have come to the lost ship Fortuna in orbit of a shattered planet. ("Ninety-Seven").

A year later, Judy locates the lander and manages to wake Grant up. However, due to his cryotube's malfunctioning wakeup systems, Grant nearly dies before Judy creates a makeshift defibrilator and revives him. Judy eventually reveals her identity to Grant and rather than risking waking the others, the two transport the cryotubes back to the Jupiter. ("Contact")

Grant aids the kids in launching their Jupiter, disabling the autopilot when it threatens to leave Judy, Will Robinson and June Harris behind. Instead, Grant flies the ship manually through the asteroid field over the planet, but when Grant refuses to listen to the computer's recommendation of a course, Judy reboots the autopilot, deciding to trust it over Grant as the autopilot system was programed by her mother. The autopilot proves to be correct and Grant gives up his chair to Judy, addressing her as Captain. To Judy and Penny's surprise, Grant reveals that he had met their mother in astronaut training program at NASA and not when she was an engineer as they had previously believed. ("The New Guy")

Grant subsequently joins the kids' rescue mission for their parents, helping Judy to pilot the Fortuna and offering her advice. Grant is reunited with Maureen who is stunned to see him again after nearly 20 years. When the Jupiters launch through a rift to Alpha Centauri, Grant is on the Dhar family's Jupiter and so he doesn't get stranded with the Robinsons on the boggy planet. ("Nothing Left Behind")

Grant later he joins the Robinson family in defending the planet from the Robots, helping Maureen in her efforts to unlock the defense shield and to keep the alien engine out of SAR's hands. Subsequently, he remains a part of the Robinson family, eating dinner with them and Robot some time later. ("Contingencies on Contingencies", "Trust")

Appearances[]

2018 TV series	2	3	4	7	8
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

Trivia[]

As revealed in "Final Transmission," the true first contact between humanity and an alien intelligence wasn't with Scarecrow on Earth, but rather Grant and the Robot that had scanned him on the Fortuna.
Grant Kelly's character did not appear in any of the trailers for the third season of Lost in Space, as Netflix wanted to keep the nature of Russell Hornsby's character a secret to make a nice reveal when the series was released.^[1] Despite this, many had already correctly guessed Hornsby's role beforehand.^[2]