In This Issue:

NSF Early Career Awards

Grads and Frosh

Professor Morton Klein

Teaching Prizes Given

Young Alums Needed

Alumni Briefs

Homecoming 2001

School Mourns WTC Victims

FEATURE STORY

Michael J. Massimino, a 1984 graduate who majored in industrial engineering, spends several days a month in the world’s largest indoor pool, learning how to maneuver an astronomical instrument the size of a telephone booth as he climbs in and out of a payload bay. Massimino is a NASA astronaut at the Johnson Space Center and is assigned to upgrade and service the Hubble Space Telescope.

“I never thought this could happen,” he said as he explained his “major responsibility,” two space walks during the STS-109 mission, which is scheduled for launch in early 2002. Appropriately, he will be traveling via the shuttle Columbia. Massimino, a mission specialist, will be part of a two-man team scheduled to replace a solar array on the telescope on their first spacewalk. On their second spacewalk, he and his teammate will install the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). “I’m really excited about that aspect of the mission,” he said, “since it will increase our ability to see into the universe by a factor of 10. This is really the major scientific effort of the flight.”

The Hubble Space Telescope, launched 11 years ago, is one of the largest and most complex satellites ever built. It orbits about 380 miles above Earth, just outside the planet’s atmosphere. This heavenly position allows the telescope to see the universe more clearly than earth-bound telescopes. The ACS will provide even more spectacular pictures of the solar system, according to Massimino.

His preparation for this role as an astronaut has been space-related since he graduated from the Engineering School. “I first started dreaming about being an astronaut when I was six years old,” he said, “but it really wasn’t until I graduated from Columbia and started thinking about what I would like to do in life that I rekindled my childhood dream. That was when I decided to go to graduate school and get involved with space-related research projects.” He entered graduate school at MIT, conducting research on human operator control of space robotics systems and receiving two patents for his research. During the summers, he worked as a general engineer at NASA Headquarters and as a research fellow at the NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center. He holds an M.S. in mechanical engineering and in technology and policy, and M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT. He continued his career in aerospace at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace as a research engineer, developing laptop displays to assist operators of the Space Shuttle remote manipulator system. He joined the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering in 1995, teaching courses and conducting research on human-machine systems. Selected as an astronaut candidate the following year, he went to “Astronaut College” for two years at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. As part of a class of 35 Americans, the largest ever, he waited until August, 2000 for his assignment. He continues to train in Houston and at the Goddard Flight Center in Maryland before going to Kennedy Space Center for the launch. To get the latest information on his mission, go to www.jsc.nasa.gov and search for STS-109.