Nine CU-Boulder astronaut alumni will stand proudly at Folsom Field May 12 during Spring 2000 Commencement as a jet squadron thunders overhead in salute to past and present university space pioneers who played key roles in the nation聮s space exploration.
Commanding spacecraft ranging from Mercury space capsules to behemoth space shuttles, the CU astronaut-alumni are testament to the confidence NASA has shown in CU-Boulder faculty and students. Campus researchers began their foray into the space age in the late 1940s by sending instruments and experiments into the heavens on sounding rockets.
Since then, NASA spacecraft have toted 15 university alumni on 34 space missions, spanning virtually the entire manned space flight program. Moreover, CU researchers have designed and built instruments for nearly every NASA planetary mission and for scores of astronomy and global change missions.
CU-Boulder ranks fourth among U.S. universities in the number of astronauts it has produced (excluding the military academies), exceeded only by MIT, Purdue and Stanford. "CU-Boulder has been a major player in space for more than 50 years," said CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard Byyny. "We felt the new millenium was a great time to recognize the important roles our astronaut-alumni have played in the manned space program."
CU聮s space presence began with Scott Carpenter, one of the original seven astronauts selected by NASA who flew on the second American manned orbital flight in 1962, piloting his Mercury capsule three times around Earth. Carpenter (honorary B.S. 1962), subsequently was in the Navy聮s Man-in-the-Sea Program, spending 30 days living and working on the ocean floor, becoming the only human to thoroughly explore outer and inner space.
On April 26, Jim Voss (M.S. Aero, 1974), is slated to make his fourth NASA shuttle flight, this one to the fledgling International Space Station, ferrying station pieces and performing spacewalks to ready the orbiting habitat for use by future occupants. Voss previously flew on Atlantis, Columbia and Endeavor from 1991 to 1995.
Vance Brand (B.A, Bus., 1953, M.S., Aero, 1960), whose astronaut career spanned 15 years, was a key player in NASA聮s manned space program. As command module pilot on the historic Apollo-Soyuz Mission in 1975, he linked his crew with Soviet cosmonauts in space. He then moved into the infant space shuttle program, flying three more times, his last as Columbia聮s shuttle commander in 1990.
That flight was historic for CU-Boulder for several reasons. Accompanying Brand on the flight was CU-Boulder alumnus Samuel Durrance (Ph.D., APS, 1980), an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University who made celestial observations with a suite of telescopes mounted in the cargo bay.
Also on that flight was a third CU-Boulder alum, John "Mike" Lounge (M.S., Aero, 1970), a Burlington, Colo., native. It was Lounge聮s third shuttle flight 聳 he flew aboard Discovery in 1985 and 1988 -- and a University of Colorado pennant in Columbia聮s window 300 miles above Earth signified the importance of the event.
George "Pinky" Nelson, who did postdoctoral work at CU-Boulder in the APS department in 1978, is well acquainted with Lounge. The two were crewmates on the flight of Discovery in September 1988. Nelson previously had flown on a 1984 Challenger mission and a 1986 Columbia mission.
Loren Acton (Ph.D., APS, 1965) made a single flight on the Challenger in 1985, which carried the massive Skylab satellite into the heavens. Now a research professor at the University of Montana, he is working on a joint NASA/Japanese telescope project.
Colorado聮s most recent space traveling alums, Kalpana Chawla (Ph.D, 1988, Aero) and Takao Doi (postdoctoral student and associate professor adjoint, Aero, 1991-1995), flew together on Columbia in November 1997.
The 9th CU astronaut receiving an honorary degree at the May 12 ceremony is Ronald Sega, who flew on Discovery in 1994 and Atlantis in 1996. Sega completed all of his doctoral coursework in electrical engineering at CU-Colorado Springs and his degree was conferred at CU-Boulder.
Doi, a Japanese astronaut, cannot be present for the ceremony at the spring 2000 commencement, nor can Kalpana Chawla. One other CU astronaut alum, Marsha Ivins (B.S., Aero, 1973), who also is unable to attend the ceremony, will make her fifth shuttle flight later in 2000.
The special jet flyover will honor three deceased CU astronaut alums, including Ellison Onizuka, (B.S., Aero, M.S., Aero, 1969) who made a successful flight on Discovery in 1985 before he was killed in the tragic explosion of Challenger in 1986. Onizuka is honored annually on the anniversary of the NASA catastrophe by CU-Boulder聮s ROTC.
In addition, the flyover will honor Jack Swigert, (B.S., MechEngr, 1953), who was aboard the ill-fated Apollo 13 moon mission that experienced a fuel tank explosion. Swigert and his crewmates managed to make miraculous repairs on the fly and limped back to Earth, a feat so compelling Tom Hanks produced and starred in the movie, "Apollo 13," in 1995. Swigert died in 1982 at the age of 51, shortly after being elected to the U.S. Congress.
The late Stewart Roosa (B.S., Aero, 1960) also will be honored. Roosa flew on Apollo 14 聳 the third lunar landing mission --piloting the orbiting craft while Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell explored the moon. Roosa died in 1994 at the age of 61.