UCF Grad Ready to Live on Space Station (Video)

By Chad Binette Updated Aug. 29, 2009

Photo: NASA

Astronaut Nicole Stott, a UCF graduate, prepares for a training session near NASA's Johnson Space Center.

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UPDATE: After a succesful launch Friday night, Space Shuttle Discovery is heading to the International Space Station. For live mission events and updates, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. Nicole Stott will be providing mission updates on her Twitter account, @Astro_Nicole.

Not far from Kennedy Space Center’s launch pads, NASA employee Nicole Stott impressed her UCF engineering professors as a class leader with a passion for working on the space shuttle.

Nearly 20 years later, Stott is back at Kennedy Space Center, ready to become the first University of Central Florida graduate to blast off into space. She will also be the first mom to live and work on the International Space Station, where she will stay for three months.

Stott credits her UCF master’s degree in Engineering Management and the support of her professors with helping her gain the confidence to apply for a highly coveted spot as an astronaut.

At the time, she was in the midst of her 12-year career in space shuttle operations and processing  -- the behind-the-scenes tasks from the time a shuttle lands until it is launched again. She took all of her UCF courses at Kennedy Space Center in a special program offered at the time for NASA engineers, and she graduated in 1992.

“It means a lot to me” to be the first UCF graduate to fly on a shuttle mission, she said. “I think fondly of (UCF) because we were so intimately tied with this program that allowed us to stay right here at KSC and work with professors ... It definitely gave me the skills for later, working in the astronaut office and working as a project engineer.”

Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch at 11:59 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28. Astronauts will deliver about 18,000 pounds of equipment for the space station, including a treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert. Stott also will participate in a space walk to remove an ammonia tank from the space station.

Stott, a Clearwater native whose dad loved to fly and build small airplanes, will take a UCF pennant and family photos with her to make the space station feel more like home. While living with colleagues from around the world, she will be part of ongoing studies about astronauts’ nutrition and immune systems. 

One of Stott’s mentors, former UCF engineering professor Bob Safford, said her exceptional ability to build rapport with everyone will help her thrive on the space station.

“It takes a special kind of person to live in that environment,” said Safford, who is now retired and living in Virginia. “It has to be somebody who’s going to get along with a group of other people in extremely close quarters. She’s just the kind of person who can do that.”

Safford and Bill Swart, who directed the academic program that UCF offered at Kennedy Space Center, continued to work with Stott after she graduated.  Both men encouraged her to apply to become an astronaut.

“At that point, we kind of joked around about it,” Stott said. “They encouraged me, but I wasn’t taking it all that seriously. When I look back, I should have listened to them sooner. “

UCF Stands For Opportunity: The University of Central Florida is a metropolitan research university that ranks as the 5th largest in the nation with more than 50,000 students. UCF's first classes were offered in 1968. The university offers impressive academic and research environments that power the region's economic development. UCF's culture of opportunity is driven by our diversity, Orlando environment, history of entrepreneurship and our youth, relevance and energy. For more information, visit http://www.news.ucf.edu.

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