The Hudson Mohawk section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) will co-sponsor “An Evening at the Planetarium” with veteran NASA space shuttle astronaut Story Musgrave on Monday at the Schenectady Museum of Innovation and Science, Schenectady.
The event, which is open to the public, begins at 5:30 p.m. with a buffet, followed by Musgrave’s talk, 6:30-8 p.m.
Other sponsors include GE Research, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and miSci (the Museum of Innovation and Science, formerly the Schenectady Museum).
“This will be an inspirational talk by a man who knows a lot about leadership and innovation in a variety of diverse fields, from ecology to parachuting,” said Ben Rubin ’13, president of the Union ASME student section.
A physician and retired NASA astronaut, Musgrave, 77, logged 25 million miles on six spaceflights over 30 years and was a part-time trauma surgeon.
He performed the first shuttle spacewalk on Challenger’s first flight, was a pilot on an astronomy mission, conducted two classified DOD missions, was the lead spacewalker on the Hubble Telescope repair mission and, on his last flight, operated an electronic chip manufacturing satellite on Columbia.
A native of Stockbridge, Mass., he began his love of all modes of transport at an early age, floating his homemade river rafts and riding combines at 5, and driving trucks and tractors at 10. As a young man, he left school and ran off to Korea with the U.S. Marines, where he was an aircraft electrician and an engine mechanic and started flying. Over the next 55 years, he accumulated 18,000 hours in more than 160 aircraft.
Musgrave has graduate degrees in math, computers, chemistry, medicine, physiology, literature and psychology. He has also been awarded 20 honorary doctorates. He lives in Kissimmee, Fla., and serves as a consultant to Disney’s Imagineering group and Applied Minds in Glendale, Calif.
ASME promotes the art, science and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the world. Union’s ASME student section acquaints its members with the profession of mechanical engineering and creates an awareness of the engineer’s responsibility to society and the environment.
For information on registration and ticket purchase, click here.