Astronaut Tracy Caldwell receives assistance in donning a training version of her shuttle launch and entry suit in preparation for a training session in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at Johnson Space Center. (NASA/photo)
Alumna Tracy Caldwell takes off for the International Space Station Aug. 8
UC Davis alumna Tracy Caldwell, who earned her doctorate here in 1997, is set to lift off Aug. 8 on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, bound for the International Space Station.
And watching her at the launch site in Florida will be two of her former UC Davis professors, Shirley Chiang of physics and Don Land of chemistry.
Caldwell is actually UC Davis' second astronaut. She is colleagues with alumnus Steve Robinson, the 2005 Discovery astronaut who made international headlines that summer when he repaired the shuttle's heat shield. Robinson (who earned his bachelor's of science in mechanical and aeronautical engineering in 1978) flew on missions in 1997, 1998 and 2005.
Caldwell's first space mission is set to last 11 days. The crew will be bringing supplies and a truss segment to the Space Station. As a mission specialist, her responsibilities will include activating a robotic arm to grab the truss, unberth it and hand it over to the space station.
Caldwell might never have joined NASA if it weren’t for a list she wrote as a high school junior in Arcadia, Calif. Unsure what she wanted to be, she made a list of all the thing she enjoyed doing: working with tools with her father, an electrician; taking her motorcycle apart; teamwork; running track; studying languages.
Then, she was inspired by the story of teacher Christa McAuliffe, who in 1986 was chosen to be the first teacher to go into space.
Inspired by Christa McAuliffe
‘She came here knowing exactly what she wanted to do. Tracy worked 10 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week for weeks on end, and it didn't bother her.’
UC Davis chemistry professor Don Land
"It was fascinating to me that she was a teacher. I started looking into the astronaut program and discovered you didn’t have to be a hot-shot military pilot. There were also mission specialists who were scientists and engineers who seemed to be interested in the same things I was," she said.
When the space shuttle Challenger exploded after take-off in 1986, it didn’t deter Caldwell. "Even after the accident, I had this feeling I needed to be doing this," she said.
(Also on board this week's mission will be Barbara Morgan, a teacher who was back-up to Christa McAuliffe in the 1980s and is now fully trained as a mission specialist.)
Caldwell received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from California State University Fullerton in 1993.
William Jackson, professor emeritus and former chair of chemistry at UC Davis, met Caldwell when he visited Fullerton to meet with prospective students.
NASA research grants at UC Davis
He has had long-running research grants from NASA for his work on comet composition, and he encouraged the budding astronaut to apply to UC Davis for her doctorate.
Caldwell began her studies at UC Davis in 1993, working mostly with Professor Don Land in the Department of Chemistry and also with Shirley Chiang, professor and current chair of the physics department, and Charles (Chuck) Fadley, professor of physics.
The crew members of STS-118 include, from the left, mission specialists Richard (Rick) Mastracchio, Barbara Morgan, Pilot Charles Hobaugh, Commander Scott Kelly and mission specialists Tracy Caldwell, Canadian Space Agency's Dafydd (Dave) Williams, and Alvin Drew Jr. (NASA/photo)
"She came here knowing exactly what she wanted to do," Land said. "Tracy worked 10 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week for weeks on end, and it didn't bother her."
Land said that Caldwell was very clear about her career goals. In their first conversation after arriving in the lab, she told him that her goal was to be accepted for the astronaut program by NASA.
Picked up Russian and pilot's license
But Caldwell also found time for some activities apart from studying for her doctorate -- albeit ones that would boost her credentials for NASA. She learned Russian and got her private pilot's license. She also volunteered as a sign-language translator, according to Land.
Caldwell's research was in the area of heterocycle catalysis, which could be applied to developing cleaner fossil fuels or biofuels.
Much of her work involved using powerful microscopes to study the surfaces of catalysts, including a couple of quarters working in Chiang's laboratory, designing and building high-vacuum scanning/tunneling microscopes.
"She was a very hard worker, very focused," Chiang said.
After she submitted her dissertation in June, 1997, Caldwell applied to the astronaut program while beginning postdoctoral research at UC Irvine.
Selected in the first pass
To her surprise, she was selected in the first pass and entered the astronaut program in 1998. Her two-year training included tours of all the NASA facilities, intensive instruction in space shuttle and space station systems, ground school to prepare for flight training, plus water and wilderness survival training.
Since then, her assignments have included the testing and integration of Russian hardware and software products for the international space station, and serving as "CAPCOM," the astronaut at Mission Control assigned to communicate with astronauts flying in space.
The loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003, again, did not alter Tracy’s commitment to the space program.
"If anything, I was fueled by it, because I really believe in the space program," she said. "Laurel Clark, one of the crew members, used to say, ‘A ship is safe at harbor, but that’s not what a ship is for.’ We all know the risks when we go."
On Caldwell's voyage into space, she will carry some tokens of UC Davis: a banner representing the Department of Chemistry and the university; and a medallion from the College of Letters and Science.
"I feel really blessed to be part of the space program," Caldwell said.