Irish Astronaut on Atlantis

Now this is cool. A Double Domer, Michael T. Good '84, '84, is one of the astronauts on the Atlantis Space Shuttle mission to Hubble. Good is an Air Force colonel who graduated from ND's ROTC program and then earned his Master's at ND.

The NASA website has a lot of really great pictures, video, and background information, including this more complete biography of Good. It says that his hometown is Broadview Heights (between Cleveland and Akron), but his career has never brought him to Wright-Patt. Do any members who are in the Air Force have any suggestions on how we could bring him to Wright-Patt when he returns -- with a visit with the families of our club the next day, of course?

The mission has included five spacewalks that have all been successful. The astronauts have repaired and upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope for what will be the last time.

Good gave a fascinating interview in which he talks about the mission and his role in particular. He described how he was most looking forward to the space walks:

Well, that’s definitely going to be the highlight. I’d have to say there are two things that I’m really looking forward to. One is just going out the hatch especially for the first time and just looking outside, being outside in my own spacesuit, you know, kind of my own little satellite there, and looking out into space through that visor, no windows; looking down at the Earth, watching it pass by, looking at the colors, looking out into space, seeing the stars. But just being outside of a vehicle traveling around the world, hanging out there in space, I think that’s just going to be fascinating and I think it’s something that obviously not a lot of people get to do. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. The other thing I’m really looking forward to is, once I’m out the door, translating over to the Hubble Space Telescope and, and grabbing a hold of it. I’ve, I’ve looked up from my driveway and watched the Hubble go overhead — you can see it, it’s a, a bright light on a clear night — and I’ve just imagined myself actually being up there and, and holding on to that thing as it’s, as it’s speeding around the world. I think that’s going to be pretty cool. And then once I get over that, I’m going to pull out my power tool, I’m going to undo a couple bolts, and we’re actually going to open up the doors to Hubble and we’re going to crawl inside and actually get to work on the telescope from the inside. I think that’s going to be pretty exciting.

There was a significant concern about the possibility of getting hit with "space junk." So much of a concern that a second crew has been poised ready to launch on a rescue mission, if necessary. So far, everything has gone well. The astronauts have been checking the Shuttle to see if it was damaged on takeoff, but have found no significant damage. So, everything looks good for a return Friday morning to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

And in 2010, all of the shuttles will be retired. Wright-Patt has already put in a request to get Atlantis for display at the museum.

UPDATE: NASA told Atlantis not to land on Friday due to bad weather; they'll try again on Saturday.