Congressman Bart Gordon highlights TTU/NASA relationships
klykins@tntech.edu
Office of Communications & Marketing
Courtesy: Congressman Bart Gordon Press Release
This Sunday, Nov. 22, Tennessee Tech University alumni and students, and K-12 students from across the Upper Cumberland region will have an unique opportunity to talk with NASA Astronaut Barry Wilmore, a TTU graduate, during a live videoconference from the International Space Station. Congressman Bart Gordon, Chairman of the U.S. House Science and Technology Committee, helped TTU obtain the 30-minute downlink window to communicate directly with Wilmore and his fellow astronauts.
As Wilmore works aboard the space station after piloting the Space Shuttle Atlantis, he follows a long line of distinguished TTU alumni and Upper Cumberland natives who have gone on to work for NASA and in the aerospace industry.
Roger Crouch was TTU’s first alumnus to travel into space. The Jamestown native served as a payload specialist on two flights aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 and took with him a TTU pennant and replica of the university seal. On both of Crouch’s missions, two TTU alumni served in direct support positions on the ground – Teresa Vanhooser as mission manager and Mike Robinson as mission scientist.
Eight years before Crouch’s missions, in 1989, Michael McCulley of Livingston flew aboard the same Shuttle Atlantis that Barry Wilmore is piloting on this mission. McCulley, while not a TTU graduate, is a member of TTU’s Millard Oakley STEM Center advisory board. He logged a total of 119 hours in space, during which time he helped to successfully deploy the Galileo spacecraft on its journey to explore Jupiter.
Harry Stonecipher is another notable TTU alumnus who worked in an aerospace-related industry. Stonecipher was the longtime CEO at McDonnell Douglas and later The Boeing Company. Under Stonecipher’s leadership, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing were world leaders in the development and production of aircraft and space systems.
Current TTU President Bob Bell has NASA roots as well. Bell was a summer intern at the Kennedy Space center for three years where he worked on the Apollo Program from 1966-68. Among other projects, Bell worked on the very launch pad, Complex 39, that Wilmore used during to take Shuttle Atlantis from Earth into space on Monday.
In total, more than 110 TTU graduates have used their excellent education to pursue careers with NASA, and countless others have gone on to work for the aerospace industry.
This Sunday, local residents can view the historic videoconference with Barry Wilmore live on Tennessee Public Television at 10:53 AM (WCTE-TV: channel 10 on Charter cable or channel 22 on Dish/Direct/antenna). For more information about the event, visit www.tntech.edu/stem.
