Purdue alumnus and astronaut Feustel featured in IMAX film
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University alumnus and mission specialist Andrew Feustel will be featured in the IMAX film "Hubble 3D," which opens Friday (March 19) and will run through May at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.
The movie, narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, follows the seven astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during a 2009 mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
"It chronicles the amazing saga of the greatest success in space since the moon landing. Featuring stunning on-orbit coverage of the telescope's final repair and jaw-dropping IMAX 3D flights through distant galaxies, Hubble's astonishing legacy will be captured for generations to come," reads the description of the film on the IMAX Web site.
The 13-day mission was the final servicing mission to the Hubble telescope, intended to extend and improve the orbiting observatory's capabilities for at least another five years of research.
Astronauts from the mission Feustel and Notre Dame alumnus Michael Good will provide video greetings at a private movie premiere held by the Indiana Space Grant Consortium on Wednesday (March 17).
Former astronaut and Purdue alumnus Greg Harbaugh, who conducted spacewalks on the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and Russ Werneth, a Hubble Telescope engineer who helped train astronauts for their spacewalks, will speak at the reception. Additional remarks will be made by Jim Fitzgerald, aerospace education specialist at NASA Glenn Research Center; Al Diaz, who won a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 1994 for his work leading the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and is Purdue's executive vice president for business and finance, treasurer; Bonnie McClain, education manager for NASA Exploration Systems; and Stacey Hughes, assistant superintendent for student learning from the State Department of Education.
"We are very proud that every spacewalk for the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission included an Indiana-educated astronaut," said Barrett Caldwell, director of the Indiana Space Grant Consortium and associate professor of industrial engineering and aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue. "Just as the breathtaking images captured by the telescope for the past 20 years have inspired us all, we hope watching astronauts from a similar background or hometown will inspire young students and spark an interest in math, science and engineering at one of our great Indiana universities."
Feustel completed three of the mission's five spacewalks, repairing an imaging instrument and replacing a guidance instrument, two imaging instruments and a battery.
Feustel also has been assigned to fly on space shuttle mission STS-134 to the International Space Station, scheduled for launch on Sept. 16. The flight will deliver an alpha magnetic spectrometer, a cosmic ray particle physics detector designed to examine fundamental issues about matter and the origin and structure of the universe.
Feustel, 44, earned a bachelor's degree in solid earth sciences in 1989 and a master's degree in geophysics in 1991, both from Purdue. He earned a doctoral degree in geological sciences from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in 1995.
To date, 22 Purdue alumni have been chosen for space flight, including Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, and Eugene Cernan, the most recent person to do so. Purdue alumnus Scott D. Tingle, 43, was chosen earlier this year as an astronaut candidate and began training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. He is a commander in the U.S. Navy and will become the 23rd Purdue graduate to become an astronaut.
Purdue alumni have flown on more than one third of all manned U.S. space flights, including missions from Project Mercury (Virgil "Gus" Grissom), the Gemini Program (Armstrong, Cernan and Grissom), the Apollo Program (Armstrong and Cernan), and more than 40 space shuttle flights. Two of the six Americans who have flown on the Russian space station Mir - John Blaha and Dr. David Wolf - are Purdue graduates.
The Indiana Space Grant Consortium's mission is to spread the vision of NASA by inspiring and integrating NASA-related education, work force development, outreach and research activities across the state. It is part of Space Grant, a national network of 52 university-based Space Grant institutions, and contributes to the nation's science enterprise by funding research, education and public service projects in the areas of research infrastructure, curriculum enhancement, faculty development, teacher training and public outreach.
Source: Barrett S. Caldwell, 765-494-5412, bscaldwell@purdue.edu
Related Web sites:
Purdue in space: https://www.purdue.edu/space/
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Note to journalists: Media interested in attending the premiere should contact the Indiana Space Grant Consortium at insgc@purdue.edu. Seating is limited.