Cal State Fullerton Scientist To Lead Three Space Walks
POSTED: 7:03 am PDT August 8, 2007
BEAUMONT, Calif. -- A scientist who went to high school in Riverside County before attending Cal State Fullerton is scheduled to blast off aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on Wednesday on her first flight into space.
Lead Mission Specialist Tracy Caldwell, who will celebrate her 38th birthday in space on Tuesday, will coordinate three space walks during the 11- day mission to deliver a new segment to the right side of the International Space Station's backbone, known as the truss.
Endeavor is scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 3:36 p.m. Pacific Time. If the mission is scrubbed as a result of bad weather or technical difficulties, it could be rescheduled for tomorrow or the weekend, according to NASA.
The mission is especially significant in Baumont, where Caldwell graduated from Baumont High School in 1987. The city will open its Civic Center gymnasium at 2:30 p.m. today so residents can watch a NASA television feed of pre-launch activities and the launch itself.
The Arcadia-born Caldwell received a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1993 from Cal State Fullerton, where she was a sprinter and long jumper on its track degree. She received a doctorate in physical chemistry from UC Davis in 1997 and was a Dreyfus Environmental Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Irvine that year.
At Cal State Fullerton, Caldwell designed, constructed and implemented electronics and hardware associated with a laser-ionization, time-of-flight mass spectrometer for studying atmospherically relevant gas-phase chemistry. She also worked for the Research and Instructional Safety Office as a lab assistant, performing environmental monitoring of laboratories using hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials.
Caldwell was working as a postdoctoral researcher UC Irvine's AirUCI, the campus' atmospheric chemistry research group, when she was chosen to be part of the astronaut corps in 1998.
Joining Caldwell aboard Endeavour will be a stuffed UC Irvine anteater mascot. When Caldwell asked AirUCI if it wanted to contribute something to the shuttle's small box designated for items from its seven-member crew, it provided the 3-inch tall Peter the Anteater.
The anteater sports an AirUCI patch on his belly and a flag in his paw that says, "First EMSI in Space." EMSI stands for Environmental Molecular Sciences Institute, the National Science Foundation-funded program that supports AirUCI.
