Astronaut Drew Feustel to visit Cornwall
Cornwall ON – NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel will be visiting Cornwall on May 28-29 to share his experiences of flying on the Space Shuttle. Dr. Feustel has a strong connection to Cornwall: his wife Indira Bhatnagar Feustel grew up here and graduated from CCVS High School.
Dr. Feustel will be giving a presentation on his experiences as an astronaut on Saturday May 29 at 10:00 am at Galaxy Cinemas.
Dr. Feustel served on the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in May 2009 (STS-125), the final Space Shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission successfully extended and improved the observatory’s capabilities. In completing his first space mission, Dr. Feustel logged almost 13 days in space, and a completed almost 21 hours in 3 EVAs.
“Dr. Feustel’s visit is a great opportunity to hear firsthand what it is like to walk in space and fly on the Shuttle,” said Mayor Bob Kilger. “We are very fortunate that NASA and Dr. Feustel were able to find time between missions to visit Cornwall.”
On his shuttle flight, Dr. Feustel carried a special memento from Cornwall: the Cornwall Flag. Dr. Feustel is expected to present the flag to Mayor Bob Kilger during his Saturday presentation.
Attendance to Dr. Feustel’s presentation on Saturday morning is free. Seating is limited to 320, and will be available on a first come, first served basis.
About Mission STS-125 (May 11-24, 2009)
Mission STS-125 was the fifth and final Hubble servicing mission and involved the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The 19 year old telescope spent six days in the Shuttle’s cargo bay undergoing an overhaul conducted by four spacewalkers over five daily spacewalks, with the assistance of crewmates inside the Atlantis. The space walkers overcame frozen bolts, stripped screws, and stuck handrails. The refurbished Hubble Telescope now has four new or rejuvenated scientific instruments, new batteries, new gyroscopes, and a new computer. The STS-125 mission was accomplished in 12 days, 21 hours, 37 minutes and 09 seconds, traveling 5,276,000 miles in 197 Earth orbits.
Dr. Andrew Feustel (Ph.D.) – Biography
Dr. Feustel grew up in Lake Orion, Michigan. He studied at Purdue University (B.S. in Solid Earth Sciences, M.S. in Geophysics), and completed his Ph.D. in Geological Sciences specializing in Seismology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1995.
He is married to the former Indira Devi Bhatnagar of Ontario. His parents both live in Michigan, and Indira’s parents reside in Cornwall.
During his Master‘s degree studies at Purdue University, Dr. Feustel investigated physical property measurements of rock specimens under elevated hydrostatic pressures simulating Earth’s deep crustal environments. In 1991, Feustel moved to Kingston, Ontario, Canada to attend Queen’s University. His Ph.D. thesis investigated seismic wave attenuation in underground. In 1997 Feustel began working for the Exxon Mobil Exploration Company, Houston, Texas, as an Exploration Geophysicist designing and providing operational oversight of land, marine, and borehole seismic programs worldwide.
He was selected as a Mission Specialist by NASA in July 2000. Following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, he was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Space Shuttle and Space Station Branches.
Dr. Feustel is currently assigned to STS-134, possibly the last Space Shuttle flight in history. STS-134 will fly to the International Space Station and deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a state-of-the-art cosmic ray particle physics detector designed to examine fundamental issues about matter and the origin and structure of the universe. STS-134 is currently scheduled for launch in November of this year.
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