Stan Love '87 will be the speaker at Harvey Mudd College's fall convocation Thursday, Sept. 4, from 4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Galileo Hall. The public is invited to attend. Those unable to be present are invited to watch the live web stream of the program.

NASA astronaut and Harvey Mudd College alumnus Stan Love '87 and the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:07 a.m. PST Wednesday, Feb. 20, completing a 12-day, 202-orbit, 6.3-million-mile mission to deliver the Columbus laboratory module to the International Space Station.

Love is the second HMC graduate to venture into space as part of NASA's space shuttle program. George "Pinky" Nelson '72 flew on three missions during the 1980s. Nelson is now an impassioned advocate for K-12 science education and a member of the faculty in the Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Program at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash.

Love completed two space walks (photo, left) during mission STS-122, including one as a substitute for astronaut Hans Schlegel, who became ill. Love's efforts earned him a place in a USA Today story, "Rookie gets rave reviews as spacewalk sub." On Day 11 of the mission, the crew was awakened to the sounds of the HMC anthem, "Hail Thee, Harvey Mudd." The anthem was composed by alumna Amy Lewkowicz '90, a longtime friend of Love’s.

NASA has a rich archive of video, audio and images of the mission, which includes a recording of the wake-up song and Love's greeting from space to everyone at the college. During his message, he also reflected on the friendships he developed and the value of the education he received while at HMC.

The launch of Atlantis was originally scheduled for December, but was postponed while problems with fuel sensors were diagnosed and repaired. The college hosted a "Tang and cookies" event and invited the community to watch the Feb. 7 launch live via big-screen projection in Galileo Hall. An Inland Valley Daily Bulletin story about the event included quotes from faculty and students. 

In addition to its two astronauts, Harvey Mudd College also has stong ties to NASA's space program through research. HMC is collaborating with BioSTAR West on science experiments that were launched on the shuttle Endeavour's mission STS-118 in August 2007. Professors Shenda Baker and Elizabeth Orwin are working with investigators from Hawaii Chitopure Inc., BioSTAR West and the University of Louisville on studies of human cell responses in microgravity. The work is spearheaded by William Wiesmann, M.D., president and CEO of Hawaii Chitopure Inc., senior managing partner of BioSTAR West and a trustee at HMC. Baker was featured in a recent Tampa Tribune story that discussed the research and the effects of microgravity on astronauts. 

A native of Eugene, Ore., and a physics major while at HMC, Love has been a NASA astronaut since 1998. Prior to his training for STS-122, he served as Space Station CAPCOM, the person in mission control who talks to the station crew on the radio. Before joining NASA, Love was a staff engineer working with computer models of space optical instruments at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Love’s biography is available on the NASA website.

Love and Nelson learned to fly while part of the college’s Bates Aeronautics Program, which was led by Instructor of Aeronautics Emerita Iris Critchell. The 86-year-old Critchell, who served as a member of the Women Air Force Service Pilots during World War II, continues to fly airplanes today.

Photos courtesy NASA