MIT Astronauts
Four MIT Astronauts to be in Space in November
NASA Astronaut Greg Chamitoff PhD '92 catches a meal near the galley of the International Space Station. Michael Fincke '89 will be joining him shortly. Photo: NASA
This November, more than 120,000 MIT graduates will be roaming the earth. And, for the first time in NASA history, four will be simultaneously traveling in space.
Michael Fincke '89 will begin his ascent into space aboard the Soyuz space capsule on October 12, in command of the Expedition 18 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). He will join colleague Gregory Chamitoff PhD '92, who has served as a flight engineer and science officer there since June.
On November 16, mission specialists Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper '84 and Stephen Bowen ENG '93 will also head to the ISS via Shuttle Mission STS-126. Piper, Bowen, and the rest of the crew plan to deliver equipment that will enable larger crews to reside aboard the complex.
As though four alums in space weren't coincidence enough, the MIT Alumni Travel Program trip, Inside the Russian Space Program, put even more alumni on the scene on October 12. The travelers, who hailed from MIT as well as Princeton, were on hand in Kazakhstan to watch the launch of the Soyuz space capsule transporting fellow alums to the ISS.
Two MIT astronauts have been in space at the same time on several other occasions—during six Space Shuttle missions and one Apollo mission—but this is the first time four have been gravity-free at once.
Two other alums, Michael Massimino SM '88, ENG '90, ME '90, PhD '92 and John Grunsfeld '80, were scheduled to commence an 11-day Hubble servicing mission about a month before the STS-126 launch. However, a control system failure in the Hubble telescope has delayed the mission's launch to as late as February 2009.
The Hubble, which is roughly the size of a Mack truck, has viewed galaxies over 12 billion light years away while tearing through space at 5 miles per second. The NASA team plans to eventually repair and upgrade its components.
Keep up to date with alumni astronaut news via the MIT Club of South Texas Web site.
In the meantime, check out a video series where Chamitoff discusses hallucinations, hair cuts, and fire—in space, and view a photo gallery of images from Expedition 18, STS-126, and Hubble missions.
By Liv Gold
Published October 9, 2008
