Less than 24 hours away from performing a spacewalk, when he will be exchanging this gag hardhat for the helmet portion of a spacesuit, astronaut Steve Robinson jokes with his fellow crewmembers. (NASA photo)
Steve Robinson factoids
Aggie ties
- Earned his undergraduate degree in aeronautical and mechanical engineering in 1978
- Played the tuba in the Cal Aggie Band-uh
- Took a job at the University Airport just to be close to planes
- Established the UC Davis Astronaut Alumni Scholarship in College of Engineering to recognize students with financial need in mechanical and aeronautical engineering
Astronaut history
- Started work for NASA in 1975 as a student intern at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View
- Selected as an astronaut in December 1994
- Was the first Aggie in space in 1997
- Trips into space: 1997, 1998 (accompanying his hero, John Glenn), 2005
- He is a mission specialist who performs scientific experiments in orbit
- Was payload commander on the 1998 flight
- Until his latest trip, logged more than 497 hours in space
What you wouldn't suspect about Steve
- Plays lead guitar in Max Q, a rock 'n' roll band
- Went to Stanford to earn his master's and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering
- As a sideline, started an early information graphics company for electronic commercials on billboards with Aggie classmate Chi Tran
- Applied 12 years in a row to NASA before being selected
- His business card simply lists Robinson as "astronaut"
- He's turning 50 in October
Miscellaneous astronaut facts
- The initial astronaut salary was $8,330 to $12,770 annually in 1959
- Those early-era qualifications specified males between 25 and 40 years of age, less than 5-foot, 11-inches tall and possessing a bachelor's degree
- Today shuttle crews are composed of people from every race, creed, color and gender (and probably height), and the age limit has been extended (note Steve's upcoming birthday)
- Classified as "aerospace technologists," astronauts now earn between $60,743 and $125,588 a year with no extra perks or bonuses
Other spacey alums
- Jose Granda, who earned his mechanical engineering doctorate in 1982 and is a CSU Sacramento professor, is on a NASA Faculty Fellowship at the Johnson Space Center in Houston; he's on the team supporting Robinson's crew in the International Space Station and the space shuttle on orbit repair maneuvers
- Tracy Caldwell, who earned a doctorate in physical chemistry from UC Davis in 1997, was selected by NASA in 1998 to be our second Aggie astronaut; she currently is serving in technical assignments until assigned to a space flight