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Childhood dream<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Scott\u2019s fascination with machines began at an early age. Growing up in Randolph, Massachusetts, he eagerly followed space launches; in the pre-Internet age, he wrote letters to NASA and aerospace companies requesting brochures and information on space vehicles. \u201cMy memory is that I was 10 years old when I declared I wanted to be an astronaut,\u201d says Scott. \u201cAnd I followed a technical track to do that.\u201d He attended a vocational technical high school, where he learned metal fabrication, welding, and auto repair. He went on to what is now called University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, studying mechanical engineering technology — but soon realized that becoming an astronaut would require more of a theoretical background. \u201cI worked my butt off,\u201d says Scott, \u201cevery day, every night with these engineering classes, and I finally made it as a full engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>Scott Tingle shows off his 1987 Purdue textbooks: Gas Dynamics, written by Maurice Zucrow and Joe Hoffman, and Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, written by Robert Fox and Alan McDonald — all former Purdue Mechanical Engineering professors.<\/p><\/div>\n
Then the Navy came calling. An enlisted Aviation Ordnanceman, Scott balanced his Navy duties with an internship at Morton Thiokol in Utah, all while looking to get a graduate degree to enhance his NASA credentials. \u201cI saw this full-page magazine ad for Purdue,\u201d recalls Scott. \u201cI learned more about them, and saw the number of people doing research, and the qualifications of the professors, and I thought, \u2018This is pretty cool.\u2019 Only later did I find out that Purdue is the school of Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
After getting his acceptance letter in 1987, he had to quickly make plans to travel from Utah. \u201cThe graduate office asked me where I was planning to live,\u201d says Scott. \u201cI said, \u2018I don\u2019t know yet!\u2019 But I had a van, so figured I could always live in my van until I figured it out. Thankfully, during the first week of class, I found an apartment across the river in Lafayette. But then my van broke down, and I had to walk across the river, up the hill to campus, and then walk back every night. Uphill both ways!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scott studied fluid mechanics and propulsion. \u201cI used to do my homework in the basement of the Mechanical Engineering building,\u201d Scott remembers. \u201cAll my friends were down there doing flow measurements with lasers. It was a geeky place; I just loved it! All we needed was the vending machine at the end of the hall. I lived on Twinkies and Snickers for a couple years!\u201d To this day, Scott still refers to his Introduction to Fluid Mechanics textbook, written by his advising professor, Alan T. McDonald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had no idea how to get into the big leagues of engineering,\u201d says Scott. \u201cI was just following my heart and following my dreams.\u201d However, the advantage of being a Purdue grad student was the number of industry representatives that came to campus. \u201cI had an interview with the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, and I really liked what they were doing.\u201d In their propulsion division, he worked with some of the biggest systems in the business, including the Space Shuttle Main Engines, the Solid Rocket Boosters, and Global Positioning System satellites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boiler up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
But then, another fork in the road. \u201cI loved engineering and systems, but I also loved being in the air,\u201d says Scott. \u201cDo I want to get a Ph.D., or do I want to fly airplanes?\u201d The answer came to him over an extended lunch break at his engineering job. To keep his chops up, Scott flew aerobatics on a Pitts Special aircraft out of Hawthorne (where SpaceX headquarters is now located). During an inverted spin, his necktie flew up and hit him in the face (\u201creminding me I had to go back to work!\u201d Scott laughs). The message was clear: you need to just fly airplanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scott was commissioned as a full-time naval officer in 1991, and earned his wings of gold as a naval aviator in 1993. Over the next decade, he flew thousands of missions as a test pilot, combat pilot, and instructor. He compiled more than 4,500 flight hours in 51 types of aircraft, 750 carrier arrestments, and 54 combat missions. \u201cBeing a test pilot, you have to have that confidence,\u201d says Scott. \u201cIt goes beyond being cool under pressure; you have to be a risk manager when you\u2019re in that cockpit. Those skills are valuable in both engineering and in space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh yes, that childhood dream. \u201cI applied to the Astronaut Corps several times,\u201d recalls Scott. With his engineering background and test pilot experience, Scott seemed like a shoo-in. \u201cThe first time I figured it was kind of too early. The second application, they sent out some feelers, and that was about it. Put in my third application, and got a couple of calls, but it didn\u2019t quite happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this point, Scott was preparing to take a big job at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland. He was also 40-something, married with three kids. Becoming an astronaut seemed to be an improbable pipe dream. \u201cBut I\u2019m going to go to my grave knowing that I tried as hard as I could,\u201d Scott says. He sent in his fourth application, and in 2009 was selected to join that year\u2019s astronaut class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s very humbling,\u201d says Scott, \u201cand such an honor to realize that I\u2019m actually part of this community. It can be overwhelming at times.\u201d And it wasn\u2019t just the NASA community that embraced him. \u201cWhen I was finally selected, it was [Purdue astronauts] Drew Feustel and Jerry Ross who were the first to really put their arms around me and welcome me to the club!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that club is numerous, as he learned just how many Purdue grads are working in every corner of the aerospace industry. As Scott says, \u201cyou can\u2019t swing a dead cat around here without hitting a Boilermaker!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGoing to Purdue was the single best professional decision I\u2019ve ever made in my life,\u201d says Scott. \u201cIt follows me to this day. I\u2019m 52 years old, and I made that decision when I was 21. And I still have really strong relationships with those people. Whatever you want to do in life, you need a good foundation. If you go to Purdue, you\u2019ll be prepared academically, technically, and practically. We\u2019re the kind of people that like to get in there and get up to our elbows in grease. We know how systems go together, and how to work in a team. You can\u2019t get that experience everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As momentous as Scott\u2019s selection was, the timing was a bit awkward. With the Space Shuttle making its final flight in 2011, only Russia was capable of launching humans into space, and very few astronauts were taking the ride. But rather than becoming discouraged, Scott jumped into every role NASA gave him. \u201cI learned how to do CAPCOM [capsule communication], sitting at the desk talking to the crew on board. I did engineering analysis with our commercial partners, like Orbital-ATK and Sierra Nevada. I also supported my fellow astronauts, escorting family members at one of their launches in Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n Scott\u2019s spaceflight assignment finally came in 2016. Thus began an intense drill-down into the many aspects of Expedition 54, including scientific experiments, crew dynamics, and a good bit of Russian language and culture. \u201cIt\u2019s a Russian vehicle, in Russia, so we must speak Russian!\u201d says Scott. \u201cThe good part is, when you work in a simulator, you tend to have the same conversation over and over, so you know what to expect. Casual conversation can be challenging, but the Russians are so professional, and they\u2019ve done this for so long. They know how to train internationals on their system.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n Language isn\u2019t the only barrier to overcome. When you\u2019re planning to live in a confined space for several months with people from different backgrounds, psychology and sociology play just as big a role in success. That\u2019s why the crews also go on camping expeditions, and other situations where they learn each other\u2019s personalities, organizational skills, and problem-solving processes. \u201cIf you can learn to manage your expectations on the ground, hopefully there won\u2019t be any surprises when you\u2019re in space,\u201d says Scott.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n So what will it be like, adjusting to life on the International Space Station? Step one is exercising for two hours a day. \u201cOn earth, gravity keeps your muscles and bones strong, but in space, you quickly lose strength, and your muscles lose mass,\u201d says Scott. So built into every day\u2019s schedule is two hours of cardiovascular and weight-bearing exercise, to preserve heart function, lungs, muscles and bones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the work begins. Scott has trained with earth-based teams to conduct dozens of scientific experiments in space. One of them includes botany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBecause of gravity on earth, plants know that the roots need to go down, and the leaves need to grow up,\u201d says Scott. \u201cBut we\u2019ve found on the ISS that plants grow towards the light source, regardless of gravity. So I\u2019ll be planting seed pods, taking pictures of them as they grow, and then sealing them up into a freezer to be sent back to earth for further study.\u201d Another big part of life in space is maintaining the station. \u201cIf something breaks in space, we\u2019re the only ones that can fix it! And that may include going on spacewalks, or getting into the cupola and using the robotic arm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n NASA have also purposely built downtime into the astronauts\u2019 schedules. They can make phone calls or emails home, they can play music (Scott plans on playing his guitar on the station), and they can take photos of the amazing vistas outside their windows. \u201cEarth observation is a big deal,\u201d says Scott. \u201cWe have a camera Velcroed on every wall. We might get a note that says, \u2018This volcano is erupting, and will be in your view at exactly 4:03,\u2019 and when the alarm goes off, one of us floats up to the cupola to take a picture of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like any workplace, there\u2019s always someone cracking the whip. \u201cOur computers have this database with a big red line that moves throughout the day, showing the tasks you need to be working on,\u201d explains Scott. \u201cSo we always joke that we\u2019re \u2018catching up to the red line.\u2019 And if we\u2019re goofing off, somebody on the ground will say, \u2018Hey, that red line isn\u2019t moving fast enough!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, Scott plans to savor every second of it. \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to just tapping the wall and floating the whole length of the space station. That\u2019s going to be so cool. That\u2019s probably all I\u2019ll do the first couple of days, until the Flight Director starts yelling at me to get some work done!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s really nothing I stay up at night worrying about,\u201d says Scott. \u201cI have wanted to fly in space all of my life, and this is a very happy moment to achieve that dream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverything done in the background to prepare is important, but if you ask me where I want to be… it\u2019s on the front line. I want to be making it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s really nothing I stay up at night worrying about. I have wanted to fly in space all of my life, and this is a very happy moment to achieve that dream.<\/p>\n\n <\/blockquote>\n scott tingle<\/p>\n Purdue\u2019s 23rd astronaut<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Scott Tingle likes to go fast. Whether it\u2019s in a tricked-out Harley-Davidson speeding down the highway, or an F\/A-18 Hornet fighter jet landing on an aircraft carrier, Scott is cool, calm, and in control. Today, however, he is moving at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"people":[],"coauthors":[29,108],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purdue-in-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"people","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/people?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/ENG-23-639206-Space-Website-Rebrand-NASA-Purdue_alums-1024x683.jpg\")
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Russian connection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/maxresdefault-2.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\nLife in space<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Countdown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n <\/figure>\n \n \n\n