In recent days, our heads have been in the clouds. We have seen NASA’s fifth and final space shuttle, Endeavour, retire nearly two decades after its first mission. To the cheers, tears, and gasps of crowds, Endeavour rolled slowly through the streets of Los Angeles over three days to its retirement home at the California Science Center. A day later, there were cheers, tears, and gasps once more, as Austrian skydiver “Fearless Felix” Baumgartner successfully completed a 24-mile, death-defying free-fall space jump, shattering the speed of sound as well as the record.
Watching these events with interest along with the world was UC Santa Barbara grad student alum and former NASA astronaut Dr. Leroy Chiao. Chiao is a veteran of four space missions, including one on the Endeavour, and served as Commander of Expedition 10 aboard the International Space Station.
The UCSB alum spent 15 years at NASA, ending his career with the agency in 2005. During that time, he logged about 230 days in space – more than 36 hours of which were spent in Extra-Vehicular Activity (otherwise known as EVA, or spacewalks).
Chiao, who holds appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University, received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1983 from UC Berkeley, and earned his Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara in 1985 and 1987, respectively.
In an interview on CNN over the weekend (view the video below), Chiao told Fredricka Whitfield: “Getting up into space was the fulfillment of a childhood dream. And then getting the chance to go out and do spacewalks – that was even another level.”
The Houston resident took some time to share with the GradPost his thoughts on these special space moments.
On Felix Baumgartner’s death-defying leap into the record books:
“I thought Felix Baumgartner's jump was fantastic! He is obviously brave, for he did something that nobody had done before. He dove from about 128,000 feet and went supersonic during his dive. From all accounts, this project was well thought out and planned, and had been going for a few years before the record attempt. Several test jumps had been made prior, at lower altitudes, and those test data were used to improve things before the record jump. The company [Red Bull Stratos] had to use spacesuit technology, because Felix was, for all practical purposes, in space. I believe that they pushed pressure suit and telemetry technology in developing the suit and associated equipment for this jump.”
On the Endeavour and its retirement:
“I flew on Endeavour in 1996, on my second space mission. During this flight, I performed my first two spacewalks. Endeavour was the newest Shuttle, and so everything seemed a little newer and cleaner. All of the Shuttles have their own personality. To me, it was bittersweet watching Endeavour moving through the streets of L.A. I'm glad that they will be in good homes, and viewed by the public. But, they had a lot of life left in them, and I believe it was a mistake for the U.S. to retire the fleet prematurely.”
On how one space exploration event during his college days affected him:
“When I was at UCSB, the Challenger accident happened. Of course, the whole nation was stunned. But, it didn't deter me from pursuing my dream of becoming an astronaut myself. Sure enough, we got back on our feet as a nation and flew Shuttle again.”