CU-Boulder alum and NASA astronaut Steve Swanson set for return to Earth
After spending nearly six months on the International Space Station, University of Colorado Boulder astronaut-alumnus Steve Swanson is slated to drift back to Earth in a Russian space capsule Sept. 10 before banging down on the steppe of Kazakhstan.
Swanson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics from CU-Boulder in 1983, launched to the International Space Station, or ISS, March 26 aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-12 rocket and served as flight engineer for Expedition 39. Since late May, Swanson -- who considers Steamboat Springs, Colo., his hometown -- served as space station commander for Mission 40 on the ISS.
Swanson’s return will end 169 days in space, a mission that covered almost 72 million miles in orbit. The return journey from the ISS to Earth is expected to take about three and a half hours.
Swanson chatted live from space with CU-Boulder students gathered at Fiske Planetarium April 29, donning a CU T-shirt for the televised event. He also spoke live with Colorado State University students that day. In addition, Swanson participated in a CNN iReport, a citizen-journalism initiative in which he replied on camera from space to videotaped questions sent in by the public.
Five-year-old Brockton Estrada from Brandon, Fla., for example, told Swanson he wished he could join him in space. “Brockton, I wish you could come up here too,” Swanson said. “You would love it.” Swanson, who previously referred to ISS as “the best playground in the world,” then demonstrated some levity by effortlessly performing a forward somersault for Estrada in the low gravity of space.
Because of his participation in social media activities like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on ISS, Swanson “has become somewhat of a rock star in space,” said CU-Boulder senior instructor Joe Tanner of the aerospace engineering sciences department, a former NASA astronaut who flew four missions between 1994 and 2006. Tanner has been close friends with Swanson since 1987, when the two began flying together while assigned to the Aircraft Operations Division at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Tanner, whose four space missions lasted less than two weeks each, said Swanson is likely eager to return to Earth. “I generally wished that I could have stayed up in space a little longer on my missions,” said Tanner. “But long-duration missions are very different than short-duration missions. Steve has been up there for quite a while, and I’m pretty sure he is ready to come home.”
Swanson, who launched to the ISS along with cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency in March, also will make the return journey to Earth with the two Russians. Swanson packed several CU mementos, including a T-shirt, a flag and a small piece of sandstone from the engineering college engraved with a picture of Ralphie the buffalo and an image of the ISS for his trip.
Tanner said CU-Boulder students will have an opportunity, likely in the coming months, to chat with Swanson in person about his ISS mission. “We all are very proud of Steve and are anxious to have him come back to campus and talk with our students,” Tanner said. “There is nothing like recent, first-hand experiences in space to really excite people.”
Swanson, previously flew on the STS-17 mission aboard the space shuttle Atlantis to ISS in June 2007, then flew on the STS-19 mission aboard Discovery in March 2009, racking up more than 26 hours of spacewalking.
The current ISS astronaut crew has been involved in dozens of research experiments in the low gravity of the ISS, including efforts related to protein crystal growth, capillary blood flow, gravity sensing by plants and muscle and bone loss changes in space.
Eighteen CU-Boulder astronaut-affiliates have flown 47 NASA space missions beginning with the late Scott Carpenter in 1962.
Tanner is teaching and mentoring CU-Boulder undergraduate and graduate students in space systems design. A second CU-Boulder astronaut-affiliate, Jim Voss, received his master’s degree in aerospace engineering from CU-Boulder in 1974 and currently is a Scholar in Residence in aerospace engineering. Voss made five NASA space shuttle flights.
To watch a video of Swanson talking about his NASA experiences and his passion for Colorado’s outdoors visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU53X7O7z7w.
Contact:
Joe Tanner, 303-492-1486
joe.tanner@colorado.edu
Jim Scott, CU-Boulder media relations, 303-492-3114
jim.scott@colorado.edu