University of Colorado at Boulder alumnus Jim Voss is slated to make his fourth journey into the heavens on Friday, May 19, when NASA's space shuttle Atlantis blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Fla.
Originally slated for launch April 16, the flight has been delayed three times. Carrying a seven-person crew, Atlantis is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station to unload a ton of cargo and perform maintenance on the orbiting habitat as its assembly continues, said NASA officials. Launch is slated for 4:12 a.m. MDT.
Voss, who received a master聮s degree in aerospace engineering from CU-Boulder in 1974, previously flew on a 1991 military flight aboard Atlantis and a 1992 military flight aboard Discovery. In addition, he was the payload commander in a 1995 mission that successfully deployed and retrieved the SPARTAN satellite.
Voss will perform a space walk to work on the exterior of the space station with mission specialist Jeff Williams. The crew on the 10-day Atlantis mission includes Russian cosmonaut Uri Usachev, who has spent a total of 376 days on the Russian space station, Mir.
Voss began working at Johnson Space Center in 1984 and became an astronaut candidate in June 1987. He is one of 15 CU astronaut-alumni who have flown in space, seven of whom returned for CU-Boulder聮s spring 2000 commencement on May 12.
A digital image of Voss is available and can be emailed to interested media by calling Jim Scott in the CU-Boulder News Services Office at (303) 492-3114.