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WORK TITLE: Spaceman
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Massimino, Michael J.
BIRTHDATE: 8/19/1962
WEBSITE: http://www.mikemassimino.com/
CITY: New York
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/massimin.html * http://www.mikemassimino.com/about/ * http://me.columbia.edu/mike-massimino * http://www.space.com/34272-mike-massimino-spaceman-astronaut-book-interview.html * https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2016/10/04/mike-massimino-what-people-dont-know-about-being-an-astronaut/#53c8068e5c6b
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born August 19, 1962, in NY; married; children: two.
EDUCATION:Columbia University, B.S., 1984; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M.S. (mechanical engineering), M.S. (technology and policy), 1988, M.Eng., 1990, Ph.D., 1992.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, engineer, educator, public speaker, former astronaut. IBM, New York, NY, systems engineer, 1984-86; NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, general engineer in the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology, summer 1987; NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, research fellow in the Man-Systems Integration Branch, summers of 1988 and 1989; German Aerospace Research Establishment, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, visiting research engineer, summer 1990; McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, Houston, TX, research engineer, beginning 1992; Rice University, Houston, TX, adjunct assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering & Material Sciences Department, 1992-95; Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, beginning 1995; then Rice University and Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, adjunct professor; then Columbia University, New York, NY, professor of professional practice.
Also NASA, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, beginning 1996, trained as mission specialist and served in the Astronaut Office Robotics Branch and in the Astronaut Office Extravehicular Activity (EVA or spacewalking) Branch, then, beginning 2002, served as a CAPCOM (spacecraft communicator) in Mission Control and as the Astronaut Office Technical Liaison to the Johnson Space Center EVA Program Office; veteran of two space flights: STS-109, March, 2002, and STS-125, May, 2009, also also served as chief of the Astronaut Appearances Office.
Work-related activities include senior space adviser to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York, NY. Has appeared on television, including the television series The Big Bang Theory; guest appearances on news programs, including Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Star Talk radio and television shows The Late Show with David Letterman, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and Join or Die; also appears on podcasts.
AVOCATIONS:Baseball, camping, and coaching kids sports.
MEMBER:MIT Alumni Association, Columbia University Alumni Association.
AWARDS:Sergei P. Korolev Diploma; Laurel Award, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 2002; Guglielmo Marconi Award, Order of Sons of Italy in America, 2005; NASA Space Flight Medals; Flight Achievement Award, American Astronautical Society, 2009.
WRITINGS
Contributor to technical journals, proceedings of technical conferences, and popular periodicals, including Esquire and Readers Digest. Also contributor to the Yahoo! Parenting Web site.
SIDELIGHTS
A former astronaut and engineer by training, Mike Massimino flew two missions with NASA and made four space walks to conduct critical repairs on the Hubble Telescope. Massimino, the first astronaut to tweet from space, grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Franklin Square, New York. His hometown has named the street where he lived “Mike Massimino Street.” Massimino is also a college professor and a media personality who has appeared on television and radio and speaks publicly about topics such as teamwork, innovation, and leadership.
In an interview with Forbes Online contributor Dan Schawbel, Massimino explained how he became interested in becoming an astronaut, noting: “Watching the Apollo 11 moon landing as a 6 year old boy got me dreaming about being an astronaut. But that dream quickly died out when I realized becoming an astronaut was next to impossible. My dream was rekindled when as a 21 year old I went to see the movie The Right Stuff, watching cool test pilots and astronauts doing cool stuff—I wanted to do that too. I realized my passion was and always had been the space program.”
A contributor to popular periodicals and professional publications, Massimino is also the author of the memoir titled Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe. The memoir takes readers from Massimino’s childhood fascination with becoming an astronaut to his unlikely entry into the space program and his participation in two space flights. Massimino writes in Spaceman that he worked hard to gain entry to Columbia University, where he studied industrial engineering. He then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned two master’s degrees, one in industrial engineering and the other in technology and policy. He eventually earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering.
Massimino, however, faced failure more than once in college. He scored 11 percent on one midterm in a college engineering course. He also flunked his first doctoral oral exam. “What kept Massimino going was an unrivaled ability to shrug off humiliation,” wrote New York Times Online contributor Sam Kean. Got Science Website contributor Steven Spence noted: “That’s one of the main themes throughout his book. Don’t give up; go back and try harder.”
Massimino entered the working world but still held on to his dream of becoming an astronaut. NASA rejected him three times; the final time he was disqualified medically. On his fourth try Massimino finally made it through the final round for astronaut selection. In his interview with Forbes Online contributor Schawbel, Massimino credited desire, determination, and an unwillingness to give up for his finally making the cut. In another interview with Space.com Website contributor Sarah Lewin, Massimino said one of his reasons for writing the memoir was that he wanted “the opportunity to share stories about how cool it is to be an astronaut.” Massimino went on to tell Lewin that he also wanted “to try to make it really personal and talk about the emotion, the feelings behind it. You could talk about all the technical part of it matter-of-factly, but it’s the personal experience, the relationships and the emotions going into it that we also wanted to share.”
In Spaceman, Massimino relates how his childhood dream started to fade as he got older. As a result, as an undergraduate student he was preparing for a career in the corporate world when his dream was reignited after seeing The Right Stuff. Massimino recounts the difficult training he underwent after finally being accepted into the training program. He goes on to detail his two space flights. Massimino writes that just prior to his first spaceflight he began to have second thoughts, wondering why a guy who was afraid of heights was taking a dangerous flight into outer space. He began thinking that the various safety notifications plastered around the shuttle’s interior were “there to give you something to read before you die,” as he writes in Spaceman. Massimino goes on to describe his “nail-biting effort to repair a power supply panel on the Hubble Telescope,” as noted by a Kirkus Reviews Online contributor.
Massimino also discusses the 2003 Columbia space shuttle tragedy, in which the shuttle disintegrated upon reentering the earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board. Writing in Spaceman, Massimino notes: “The Columbia tragedy is one of those situations where no one is to blame but ultimately everyone is responsible. We had all allowed ourselves to become complacent about reentry. We were all guilty of underestimating the danger.” Massimino goes on to write that the tragedy “was 100 percent preventable.” He then details how he and his fellow NASA members addressed each problem, such as redesigning the external tank to improving imagery gained from cameras.
“What could have been a rote, stoic memoir recounting dates and stats proves to be anything but,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor, who called Spaceman “engaging and uplifting.” Writing for Booklist, Glendy X. Mattalia remarked: “His humble prose … relays the infectious awe he seems to possess at his obvious fortune.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Massimino, Mike, Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe, Crown Archetype (New York, NY), 2016.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 1, 2016, Glendy X. Mattalia, review of Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe, p. 6.
Publishers Weekly, August 22, 2016, review of Spaceman, p. 103.
ONLINE
Columbia University Mechanical Engineering Website, http://me.columbia.edu/ (June 3, 2017), author faculty profile.
Forbes Online, https://www.forbes.com/ (October 4, 2016), Dan Schawbel, “Mike Massimino: What People Don’t Know about Being an Astronaut,” author interview.
Got Science, http://www.gotscience.org/ (December 6, 2016), Steven Spence, review of Spaceman.
Johnson Space Center NASA Web site, https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/ (June 3, 2017), author biography.
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (August 21, 2016), review of Spaceman.
Mike Massimino Website, http://www.mikemassimino.com (June 3, 2017).
New York Times Online, https://www.nytimes.com (November 25, 2016), Sam Kean, review of Spaceman.
PBS: Public Broadcasting Service Web site, http://www.pbs.org/ (November 16, 2016), Miles O’Brien, “How Setbacks and Failures Shaped an Improbable Astronaut,” author interview.
Space.com, http://www.space.com/ (October 4, 2016), Sarah Lewin, “Talk to a ‘Spaceman’: Q&A with Astronaut Mike Massimino.”
OCT 4, 2016 @ 08:00 AM 1,262
Mike Massimino: What People Don't Know About Being An Astronaut
Dan Schawbel , CONTRIBUTOR
I interview business leaders, celebrities and authors.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Credit: Chad Griffith
Credit: Chad Griffith
I spoke to Mike Massimino, a former NASA Astronaut and author of the new book Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe, about how he got interested in becoming an astronaut, what people don't know about being one, the rejection he encountered in his career, why he became a professor and his best advice.
Massimino served as a NASA Astronaut from 1996 until 2014 and flew in space twice: STS-109 on space shuttle Columbia in March 2002 and STS-125 on space shuttle Atlantis in May 2009 – the final two Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions. Mike became the first human to tweet from space, was the last human to work inside of Hubble, and set a team record with his crewmates for the most cumulative spacewalking time in a single space shuttle mission. Mike has a recurring role as himself on The Big Bang Theory; appears regularly on late night talk shows, news programs, and documentaries; and is a much sought after inspirational speaker. He received his BS from the Columbia University School of Engineering, and his two MS’s and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He currently lives in New York City where he is an engineering professor at Columbia and an advisor at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum.
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Dan Schawbel: What originally got you interested in going into space, becoming an astronaut and working for NASA?
Mike Massimino: Watching the Apollo 11 moon landing as a 6 year old boy got me dreaming about being an astronaut. But that dream quickly died out when I realized becoming an astronaut was next to impossible. My dream was rekindled when as a 21 year old I went to see the movie The Right Stuff, watching cool test pilots and astronauts doing cool stuff – I wanted to do that too. I realized my passion was and always had been the space program. I could read about it and watch it on TV and in the movie theater, or, I could try to be a part of it. I chose the latter.
Schawbel: What do most people not know about what it's like to have a career as an astronaut?
Massimino: I think most people do not know about the great friendships you develop as an astronaut with other astronauts and with the people who work in the space program. Never have I felt closer to anyone than I did with the people I worked with. We got to do exciting and intense experiences together during our training and spaceflights. Through those experiences, we formed personal bonds that are strong and everlasting. Any time I hear from a fellow astronaut or someone I worked with at NASA it is like hearing from a close family member.
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Schawbel: After getting rejected by NASA twice, what made you persevere and what did you do differently to get the job the third time around?
Massimino: Actually I was rejected by NASA three times, and the third time I was medically disqualified. It was the fourth time around that I got the job. The thought of giving up was not acceptable. I could live with NASA telling me no, but I could not live with not trying. I wanted to be a part of the Astronaut team and I wanted to fly in space. That desire would never go away. I heard my friend and baseball hall of famer Joe Torre once say: “you can’t control the outcome, you can only control the effort.” I could not control the outcome of NASA’s decision but I could control the effort. I decided to concentrate on that and hope for a good outcome. Didn’t really do anything different the fourth time around except that I had more professional experience, and perhaps displayed more determination by trying a fourth time.
Schawbel: Why did you decide to be a professor after your time as an astronaut? What was that career transition like?
Massimino: After getting rejected by the astronaut program for the third time, I thought about what I would want to do if I never was selected by NASA. I thought being an engineering professor would suit me and be a great second choice. So I put in applications and was offered a professor job at Georgia Tech. I was there less than a year when NASA selected me on my fourth try, but it was enough time to show me that it was a job I would enjoy. When my flying days at NASA were winding down, I again thought about what I would want to do and again the answer was engineering professor. Luckily I got an offer from my alma mater, Columbia. It has been an interesting transition. I miss my days in the astronaut office: the training, the camaraderie, the experience of flying in space. But I feel like I now have a different purpose in sharing the lessons I learned with young people who will hopefully use them to pave their own career path, and make the world a better place through engineering and exploration.
Schawbel: What are your top three pieces of career advice?
Massimino:
1. Do something you are passionate about. Be honest with yourself in discovering that passion. Examine what you notice in the news, or conversations you find interesting, and pursue it. Careers can be difficult journeys; you need a passion to keep you going when the going gets rough.
2. Never give up when pursuing your goals. I have had the privilege of meeting many successful people in a variety of fields: business, music, sports, exploration. What they have in common is not that they never failed, what they have in common is that they never let failure stop them.
3. Always remember you are part of a team. Great things are accomplished through teamwork. If things are not going well, remember there are people who can help you. And if things are not going well for someone else on your team, make sure they know that you are there to help them. You succeed or fail as team.
Dan Schawbel is a keynote speaker and the New York Times bestselling author of Promote Yourself and Me 2.0. Subscribe to his free newsletter.
Talk to a 'Spaceman': Q&A with Astronaut Mike Massimino
By Sarah Lewin, Staff Writer | October 4, 2016 07:00am ET
43 14 MORE
Talk to a 'Spaceman': Q&A with Astronaut Mike Massimino
NASA astronaut Mike Massimino pauses for a photo in his spacesuit during a spacewalk outside the space shuttle Columbia on March 5, 2002. Massimino's two shuttle missions were focused on repairing the Hubble Space Telescope.
Credit: NASA
"Spaceman" (Crown Archetype, 2016) by Mike Massimino
"Spaceman" (Crown Archetype, 2016) by Mike Massimino
Credit: Crown Archetype
Former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino describes his path to space and two shuttle missions in a new book that follows his journey from a weak-eyed kid, to a research engineer, to — finally — an outer-space repairman of the Hubble Space Telescope.
"Spaceman" (Crown Archetype, 2016) captures the camaraderie of the space community, the utter coolness of space, a spaceman's training and a personal look into how it feels to become an astronaut. (Plus the long slog of trying to get good enough eyesight to be accepted into the space program!)
Space.com sat down with Massimino to discuss the book, his thoughts on commercial spaceflight, how to become an astronaut and his favorite space hardware. [Read an excerpt of "Spaceman" here.]
Space.com: Why did you set out to write a book about your experiences?
Mike Massimino: I seem to enjoy, a little more than my colleagues [do], the opportunity to share stories about how cool it is to be an astronaut. I think it's the greatest job in the world, and the more ways you can let people know about it and the stories that each one of us has — we all came different ways to get there, and it really is a dream come true. It's the kind of job where you dream about it, and you think it might be impossible because it's so difficult to get in there, and sometimes it works out. And that alone is great — it's a wonderful story.
What I really wanted to share, and I think maybe what they might have saw in it when we first started, was to try to make it really personal and talk about the emotion, the feelings behind it. You could talk about all the technical part of it matter-of-factly, but it's the personal experience, the relationships and the emotions going into it that we also wanted to share.
Space.com: Were you surprised by anything that made it into the book?
There was a theme that came out in the book, when I was talking to my co-writer [Tanner Colby] about it. It kind of came down to three messages; two of them I expected. One of them was pursuing a dream, and never giving up. That was a theme that I thought was worth telling; when I speak to students around the country, I talk about the importance of that.
Find out how Hubble has stayed on the cutting edge of deep-space astronomy for the past 20 years here. [See the full Hubble Space Telescope Infographic here.]
Find out how Hubble has stayed on the cutting edge of deep-space astronomy for the past 20 years here. [See the full Hubble Space Telescope Infographic here.]
Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Infographics Artist
The second theme was how cool it is to fly in space. It is amazing. You leave the planet, and you do this work in a spacesuit, and you view what it looks like, and you see these just utterly indescribable, amazing things — what that whole experience is, how cool it is to be an astronaut.
The third thing that came out of it was this story of the importance of public service, service to others. I wasn't sure that was going to be a part of it, because I always felt like what I was doing was just having fun. … But I think there was more of that, because when we wrote the book, we started from the beginning of me growing up, and I talked about my dad working for the New York City fire department, and having that sense of wanting to do something in some sort of public service or service to others — how important it was to do things to hopefully contribute to the betterment of the world. To me, that was a bit of a revelation about me that I didn't really think much about before writing the book.
Space.com: Was anything cut from the book you were sad to see go?
Massimino: What I consider to be my funniest stories got chopped, because they just didn't work. The stories that you might tell your friends or tell in front of an audience, even — the better ones were a little bit too long. If I ever get a chance to write a second book, my second book is going to be "A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the Way to the Spaceship." Because all my funny stories got cut. [Editor's note: There are quite a few funny stories still in the book.]
You can hear Massimino read the beginning of his book in an excerpt from the audiobook, available on Audible:
Space.com: You got to fly to space twice and work on the Hubble Space Telescope, which you've called the greatest scientific instrument ever built. What are your thoughts on NASA's current slate of projects?
Massimino: You heard about the discovery Hubble just made — water on the moon of Europa. That [discovery] was [made with] STIS [the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph], the instrument I had to pull the handrail off of, to fix it. I'm really excited about that; very grateful we were able to fix that instrument. [The Hubble Space Telescope: A 25th Anniversary Photo Celebration]
But your question was, in addition to Hubble, what NASA's doing now. I think we're in a different phase now. I think NASA is still doing some great things, but it can't do all the great things in space, and I think that's OK. It's getting help, hopefully, from these commercial companies like SpaceX and Boeing with its commercial spacecraft, along with the SpaceX vehicle for commercial crew, but also the Richard Branson Virgin Galactic model and Jeff Bezos. I really hope he [Bezos] is going to be successful with his Blue Origin company and the New Shepard spacecraft.
[SpaceX founder and CEO] Elon Musk wants to send people to Mars, and that's what we need. And I think NASA just can't afford to do all these things on its own. It's not like when I was a kid, going to Apollo, where they had a huge national goal that a lot of resources were devoted to. We just can't afford to do that anymore. It's not going to happen. … A budget from our tax dollars that is used wisely can do some great things, but it's not going to be on the order of what we did with Apollo anymore, maybe not on the order of what we did with the shuttle. Certainly it's something that could be great — and is — but it's not just NASA anymore.
I expect some great things to be coming out of commercial space companies in years to come.
Space.com: Would you go to space again, maybe on one of those commercial flights?
Massimino: Yeah, I'd love to do that. I don't know if anybody's going to do any asking; I don't think I could afford the ticket. But yeah, I would love the opportunity to fly into space again, absolutely.
Space.com: Would you go live on Mars?
Massimino: I think Elon Musk's plan was to leave you there, right? I want to get on one and come back. I'm too used to television and pizza.
When I got my travel orders to go to space, because it's a government operation, it said, "From Kennedy Space Center to low Earth orbit and return." To me, the "return" was very important … I'd love to go for a visit, but I would want to come back — or at least have the plan to come back.
Space.com: What's your favorite piece of space hardware?
Massimino: My favorite spaceship of all time is the shuttle. I think it's the coolest spaceship we've ever had, and will have for some time. It's amazing. I remember looking out the window toward the end of my second flight on Atlantis, looking out the window at the nose — "If I was outside and I could, I would give it a kiss," I was thinking. Because it was such a wonderful spaceship. The space shuttle was able to launch into space, and protected you and got you to orbit, and then it allows you to live there and work there and got you home safely. That was the plan — it didn't always work that way, but that's what it could do. And it landed on the runway like an airplane, like a glider. [Photos: NASA's Last Mission to the Hubble Space Telescope]
It was fairly complicated and expensive, which is eventually why it had to be replaced. But while it did its thing, it was great. That's my favorite spaceship, but it's also the only one I've ever been on. I'm very biased that way.
And I guess my favorite piece of equipment is the spacesuit itself that we do our spacewalks in. It is a miracle that that thing works. It is your own little spaceship. It keeps you comfy; it allows you to do your work; it protects you. It's used over and over again — it's been used for many years, refurbished and used again.
The repair on the Hubble that I did — on the STIS instrument, in particular — required a lot of dexterity and being able to move and work and be comfortable in that suit for a long time. But at the same time, it protected me from the harshness of space. I got to know that spacesuit intimately well, and it's just a miraculous piece of machinery.
Mike Massimino and fellow NASA astronaut Jim Newman worked to replace a reaction wheel assembly on the Hubble Space Telescope in March of 2002.
Mike Massimino and fellow NASA astronaut Jim Newman worked to replace a reaction wheel assembly on the Hubble Space Telescope in March of 2002.
Credit: NASA
Space.com: I'm sure everyone asks you this, but do you have any advice for people who want to be astronauts?
Massimino: At least for the foreseeable future, in order to be an astronaut, it requires some sort of technical background or training. And I think that's going to change; I think there's going to be all different disciplines that are nontechnical that are going to be needed as well. We certainly need them in the space program. But as far as flying, it's still, right now, people who have some sort of technical background. But that is wide: Just the people I've flown with gives you a pretty good idea. I've flown with engineers of all types. I've flown with test pilots, military people. I've flown with an oceanographer, Megan McArthur; a geologist, Drew Feustel; an astrophysicist, John Grunsfeld; and a veterinarian, Rick Linnehan. [Astronaut Drew Feustel Talks Orion and the Future of Space Exploration (Video)]
I would suggest to people: Find something that you really love. You don't have to worry about [thinking], "Will this make me an astronaut?" As long as there's some sort of math, science, medicine, computers — whatever it is — something in the STEM field that you are interested in, do that. Don't say, "I want to become a medical doctor to become an astronaut." Become a medical doctor because you want to be a medical doctor. Find out something you really love, and do that as best you can, and then look for ways to apply that to the space program.
And don't give up, either. That's the other thing. There are plenty of people that applied and got rejected and gave up — and if they didn't, they probably would have got my spot. So I'm glad they gave up. But I wouldn't recommend it for anybody; giving up is not a good idea.
This interview has been edited for length.
Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Mike Massimino
Professor of Professional Practice
228A S.W. Mudd, Mail Code 4703
Tel: (212) 854-4275
Fax: (212) 854-3304
Email: mmassimino@columbia.edu
Spring '17 office hours: Wed 9-11am
mailto:mkm252@columbia.eduEDUCATION:
H. Frank Carey High School, Franklin Square, New York, 1980
B.S. Industrial Engineering, Columbia University, 1984
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988
M.S. Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988
Degree of Mechanical Engineer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1992
ORGANIZATIONS: MIT Alumni Association; Columbia University Alumni Association.
SPECIAL HONORS: American Astronautical Societys 2009 Flight Achievement Award; NASA Space Flight Medals; Order of Sons of Italy in America 2005 Guglielmo Marconi Award; Aviation Week & Space Technology 2002 Laurel Award; Sergei P. Korolev Diploma.
EXPERIENCE: Upon completing his B.S. degree from Columbia University, Mike worked for IBM as a systems engineer in New York City from 1984 until 1986. In 1986 he entered graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he conducted research on human operator control of space robotics systems in the MIT Mechanical Engineering Departments Human-Machine Systems Laboratory. His work resulted in the awarding of two patents. While a student at MIT he worked during the Summer of 1987 as a general engineer at NASA Headquarters in the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology, during the summers of 1988 and 1989 as a research fellow in the Man-Systems Integration Branch at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and during the summer of 1990 as a visiting research engineer at the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. After graduating from MIT in 1992, Mike worked at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace in Houston, Texas as a research engineer where he developed laptop computer displays to assist operators of the Space Shuttle remote manipulator system. These displays included the Manipulator Position Display, which was evaluated on STS-69. From 1992 to 1995 he was also an adjunct assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering & Material Sciences Department at Rice University, where he taught feedback control of mechanical systems. In September 1995, Mike joined the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. At Georgia Tech he taught human-machine systems engineering classes and conducted research on human-machine interfaces for space and aircraft systems in the Center for Human-Machine Systems Research. He is currently an adjunct professor at Rice University and at Georgia Tech. He has published papers in technical journals and in the proceedings of technical conferences.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in May 1996, Mike reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. He completed two years of initial training and evaluation and is qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. Prior to his first space flight assignment, Mike served in the Astronaut Office Robotics Branch, and in the Astronaut Office Extravehicular Activity (EVA or spacewalking) Branch. In 2002, following his first spaceflight, Mike served as a CAPCOM (spacecraft communicator) in Mission Control and as the Astronaut Office Technical Liaison to the Johnson Space Center EVA Program Office.
A veteran of two space flights, (STS-109 in March 2002 and STS-125 in May 2009) Massimino has logged a total of 571 hours and 47 minutes in space, and a cumulative total of 30 hours and 4 minutes of spacewalking in four spacewalks.
In addition to various technical tasks, Massimino also serves as Chief of the Astronaut Appearances Office.
SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-109 Columbia (March 1-12, 2002). STS-109 was the fourth Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. The crew of STS-109 successfully upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope leaving it with a new power unit, a new camera (the Advanced Camera for Surveys), and new solar arrays. STS-109 set a record for spacewalk time with 35 hours and 55 minutes during 5 spacewalks. Massimino performed 2 spacewalks totaling 14 hours and 46 minutes. STS-109 orbited the Earth 165 times, and covered 4.5 million statute miles in over 262 hours and 10 minutes.
STS-125 Atlantis (May 11-24, 2009) was the fifth and final Hubble servicing mission. The 19 year old telescope spent six days in the Shuttles 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. STS-125 set a new record for spacewalking with 36 hours and 56 minutes during five spacewalks. Massimino performed 2 spacewalks totaling 15 hours and 58 minutes. The refurbished Hubble Telescope now has four new or rejuvenated scientific instruments, new batteries, new gyroscopes, and a new computer. The STS-125 mission traveled 5,276,000 miles in 197 Earth orbits and was accomplished in 309 hours, 37 minutes and 9 seconds.
Biographical Data
MICHAEL J. MASSIMINO (PH.D.)
NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)
PERSONAL DATA: Born in New York in 1962. His hometown is Franklin Square, New York. Married. Two children. Mike enjoys baseball, family activities, camping, and coaching kids sports.
EDUCATION:
H. Frank Carey High School, Franklin Square, New York, 1980
B.S. Industrial Engineering, Columbia University, 1984
M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988
M.S. Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988
Degree of Mechanical Engineer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1992
ORGANIZATIONS: MIT Alumni Association; Columbia University Alumni Association.
SPECIAL HONORS: American Astronautical Societys 2009 Flight Achievement Award; NASA Space Flight Medals; Order of Sons of Italy in America 2005 Guglielmo Marconi Award; Aviation Week & Space Technology 2002 Laurel Award; Sergei P. Korolev Diploma.
EXPERIENCE: Upon completing his B.S. degree from Columbia University, Mike worked for IBM as a systems engineer in New York City from 1984 until 1986. In 1986 he entered graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he conducted research on human operator control of space robotics systems in the MIT Mechanical Engineering Departments Human-Machine Systems Laboratory. His work resulted in the awarding of two patents. While a student at MIT he worked during the Summer of 1987 as a general engineer at NASA Headquarters in the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology, during the summers of 1988 and 1989 as a research fellow in the Man-Systems Integration Branch at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and during the summer of 1990 as a visiting research engineer at the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. After graduating from MIT in 1992, Mike worked at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace in Houston, Texas as a research engineer where he developed laptop computer displays to assist operators of the Space Shuttle remote manipulator system. These displays included the Manipulator Position Display, which was evaluated on STS-69. From 1992 to 1995 he was also an adjunct assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering & Material Sciences Department at Rice University, where he taught feedback control of mechanical systems. In September 1995, Mike joined the faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology as an assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. At Georgia Tech he taught human-machine systems engineering classes and conducted research on human-machine interfaces for space and aircraft systems in the Center for Human-Machine Systems Research. He is currently an adjunct professor at Rice University and at Georgia Tech. He has published papers in technical journals and in the proceedings of technical conferences.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in May 1996, Mike reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. He completed two years of initial training and evaluation and is qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. Prior to his first space flight assignment, Mike served in the Astronaut Office Robotics Branch, and in the Astronaut Office Extravehicular Activity (EVA or spacewalking) Branch. In 2002, following his first spaceflight, Mike served as a CAPCOM (spacecraft communicator) in Mission Control and as the Astronaut Office Technical Liaison to the Johnson Space Center EVA Program Office.
A veteran of two space flights, (STS-109 in March 2002 and STS-125 in May 2009) Massimino has logged a total of 571 hours and 47 minutes in space, and a cumulative total of 30 hours and 4 minutes of spacewalking in four spacewalks.
In addition to various technical tasks, Massimino also served as Chief of the Astronaut Appearances Office.
SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-109 Columbia (March 1-12, 2002). STS-109 was the fourth Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. The crew of STS-109 successfully upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope leaving it with a new power unit, a new camera (the Advanced Camera for Surveys), and new solar arrays. STS-109 set a record for spacewalk time with 35 hours and 55 minutes during 5 spacewalks. Massimino performed 2 spacewalks totaling 14 hours and 46 minutes. STS-109 orbited the Earth 165 times, and covered 4.5 million statute miles in over 262 hours and 10 minutes.
STS-125 Atlantis (May 11-24, 2009) was the fifth and final Hubble servicing mission. The 19 year old telescope spent six days in the Shuttles 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. STS-125 set a new record for spacewalking with 36 hours and 56 minutes during five spacewalks. Massimino performed 2 spacewalks totaling 15 hours and 58 minutes. The refurbished Hubble Telescope now has four new or rejuvenated scientific instruments, new batteries, new gyroscopes, and a new computer. The STS-125 mission traveled 5,276,000 miles in 197 Earth orbits and was accomplished in 309 hours, 37 minutes and 9 seconds.
JULY 2014
Astro Mike
mike massimino is astro mike
An astronaut, the first person to tweet from space and now a New York Times bestselling author, Mike grew up a working class kid whose seemingly unreachable dream of becoming an astronaut and going to space was realized in an unlikely journey that was driven by determination and commitment and realized with hard work and humor. After two missions to the Hubble Telescope and four space walks to make critical repairs to the telescope, Mike is now the Senior Space Advisor to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, a Columbia University professor, an author, a media personality, and an in-demand speaker for audiences seeking a unique perspective on teamwork, innovation, and leadership from a down to earth spaceman. Mike has appeared on “The Big Bang Theory” six times, as well as frequent appearances on news programs, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Star Talk” radio and television shows, “The Late Show with David Letterman,” Craig Ferguson’s new series “Join or Die” (as well as his earlier”The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”) and podcasts. In addition to Mike’s numerous scholarly articles, he’s shared his unique experiences, insights and wit in his new book “Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe” and with readers of a wide range of publications, including Esquire, Yahoo! Parenting and Readers Digest, to name just a few. Mike’s most recent honor was the renaming of his hometown street where he grew up to “Mike Massimino Street”!
About
mike massimino teaches
Michael Massimino, a former NASA astronaut and the first person to tweet from space, is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University and the Senior Advisor for Space Programs at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. He received his Bachelor of Science from Columbia and Masters of Science in both Mechanical Engineering and Technology and Policy, as well as the Degree of Mechanical Engineer and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After working as an engineer at IBM, NASA Headquarters and McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, along with academic appointments at both Rice University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, Mike was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1996. A veteran of two space flights, the fourth and fifth Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions in 2002 and 2009, Mike has many accomplishments including a team record for the number of hours spacewalking in a single space shuttle mission. He has also received a number of awards including two NASA Space Flight Medals, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and the American Astronautical Society’s 2009 Flight Achievement Award. He is also the holder of two patents and author of several engineering research papers.
Back at his alma mater, Columbia, Mike is teaching an undergraduate course, Introduction to Human Space Flight, which harnesses his years of academic and professional experience. He is also working with The Art of Engineering, a course in which all first-year engineers attend design lectures and work on engineering projects with socially responsible themes.
Mike has made numerous television appearances including a six-time recurring role as himself on the CBS hit comedy, “The Big Bang Theory.” In addition, he frequently appears in national and local television news shows, morning shows and late night talk shows, as well as a wide variety of podcasts. Mike’s new book, Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe, is receiving rave reviews and was selected by Amazon as an Editor’s Pick in the category of Big Fall Books: Nonfiction and by iBooks as a Most Anticipated Book of the Fall.
How setbacks and failures shaped an improbable astronaut
November 16, 2016 at 6:25 PM EDT
It's completely improbable that Mike Massimino actually became an astronaut. With a fear of heights, impaired vision and difficulty with swimming, he calls his achievement a miracle, but his is a story of overcoming setbacks. In his new book, “Spaceman,” Massimino details his long and difficult journey. He talks with science correspondent Miles O’Brien.
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HARI SREENIVASAN: Now some lessons from time spent in space from a man who seemed like a most unlikely candidate to become an astronaut.
Miles O’Brien has a conversation about a most unusual career, part of our weekly series on the Leading Edge of science and technology.
MILES O’BRIEN: Mike Massimino went to low-Earth orbit twice aboard the space shuttle, both times to repair the Hubble space telescope. In his new book, “Spaceman,” he details the long and difficult journey he took to become an astronaut.
So, you’re afraid of heights.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO, Author, “Spaceman”: Yes, I still am. I don’t like this right here, Miles. I’m a little worried.
MILES O’BRIEN: You don’t swim very well.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: No. The hardest thing for me as an astronaut was to improve my swimming skills.
MILES O’BRIEN: Vision was a problem, a real problem.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Imagine being D.Q.ed because I couldn’t see well enough.
MILES O’BRIEN: And you barely got through the program at MIT.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Yes. Yes. Yes.
MILES O’BRIEN: So, really, it’s completely improbable that you became an astronaut. Right?
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Yes, yes, absolutely.
MILES O’BRIEN: We met beside the shuttle Enterprise display at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City, his hometown.
It occurs to me, though, that the lessons you learned all along the way, then, dealing — coping and dealing with those setbacks, those failures, the resilience, are exactly what you need to go through to become an astronaut.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Aha. Now we’re getting at something.
I think you’re right, yes. It’s not a question of being the best at something or things coming easy to you, but it’s being a person that can work with others and not give up. And, for me, that was part of it too.
At every step of the way, when I had trouble, there were people that came in, in my life that helped me. It’s important to go seek help when you need it, and to give help when other people need it. And that is really more important than coming in with a gigantic brain into the astronaut program.
MILES O’BRIEN: That’s an important lesson for all of us, I think.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: I think so, especially when doing things that are really hard.
MILES O’BRIEN: It occurs to me that this book, to some degree, it’s about space, but space is almost a backdrop for a completely separate story. Is that the way you view it?
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: I applied to be an astronaut four times. I was rejected three times before I was accepted. So, it’s about that, not — following your dream and not giving up.
MILES O’BRIEN: If you hadn’t persevered and become an astronaut, what would you be doing today?
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Yes, I would probably be working on my next astronaut application. I think — that’s what I think.
(LAUGHTER)
MILES O’BRIEN: You always made an effort to connect with and try to relate the experience to others.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Yes.
MILES O’BRIEN: But I don’t think I have ever heard any astronaut put words to that experience that really do it justice.
Is it possible to explain especially what it’s like when you’re on an EVA, on a space walk?
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: It’s very emotional.
So, the way I try to describe it is what I was feeling. And viewing our planet was so compelling. Words like beautiful and awesome just don’t do it justice.
I felt that I was looking at a paradise. I was looking at heaven. I can’t imagine any place being more beautiful than our planet and how lucky we are to be able to live here. And that’s what I felt. That’s what I was thinking at the time, which I think is a better way for me to explain it than trying to think of words that don’t exist to explain to people just how beautiful it is.
MILES O’BRIEN: That’s pretty good. Not bad.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Well, thanks.
MILES O’BRIEN: There was a moment on that flight where you might have ruined your stop-and-smell-the-roses moment, and that was when you almost broke the Hubble.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Yes. We were trying to do a repair of the space telescope imaging spectrograph, but, before we could do that, we had a very easy task, which was to remove a handrail with big bolts on it. But I went and stripped one of those bolts.
So, the solution that came up to take the handrail off was to see if I could just tear it of the telescope. I don’t know if that ever would have crossed my mind. That is so counter to the way we do things. But, luckily, we had smart engineers that thought of it on the ground.
I’m inside the Hubble space telescope doing this million-dollar repair on this billion-dollar telescope.
Houston, you ready for this?
MAN: Yes, we’re ready.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: I grabbed that handrail and gave it a couple of tugs, and, wang, it came right off.
It’s off.
MILES O’BRIEN: Final thought. Think about how fortunate we were to be alive on that day in 1969…
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Yes. Yes.
MILES O’BRIEN: … they walked to the moon. We were kind of sprinkled with moon dust, our generation.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Yes, we were very lucky.
MILES O’BRIEN: And it inspired a whole generation of astronauts of your generation.
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Yes. Right.
MILES O’BRIEN: Do you worry that young people today don’t have a similar inspiration?
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: I talk to a lot of high schools students around the country. They still have that same interest, but it’s just different. It’s not like we had.
It’s a way — what was given to us, it’s different. Now we can engage with the astronauts that are in space. I was the first person to tweet from space, but now every astronaut tweets from space and does Instagram and Snapchat and Face — they have Facebook going.
So, I think it’s more of a personal relationship they have with space now. They see it as more obtainable than me watching my superhero Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon. It’s like, there’s no way I can do that.
I think it’s more engageable, and it’s just different than what we had. But they still think it’s very, very cool. And I don’t see that interest waning. I see it — I see it as growing.
MILES O’BRIEN: All right, Mike Massimino, thank you very much.
(LAUGHTER)
MICHAEL MASSIMINO: Thanks, Miles.
MILES O’BRIEN: It’s a pleasure. Enjoyed it.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Online, find a review of “Mars,” a new six-part miniseries that premiered Monday on the National Geographic Channel. That’s at PBS.org/NewsHour.
Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
Glendy X. Mattalia
Booklist. 113.3 (Oct. 1, 2016): p6.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
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Full Text:
Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe.
By Mike Massimino.
Oct. 2016. 336p. ilius. Crown, $28 (9781101903544); e-book, $13.99 (9781101903551). 629.450092.
"Nothing you do on this planet can ever truly prepare you for what it means to leave it," writes astronaut Massimino. And, of course, most readers won't ever have the privilege to do so. But those looking for a peek inside the mysterious world of space travel would have to search in a galaxy far, far away to find a guide through the heavens that's as down-to-earth and entertaining as Massimino's. Without pretense, he crafts his memoir in plain language and with details so exquisite that readers will feel they're standing beside him at the bottom of a looming spaceship, waiting to be catapulted into the far reaches of the universe. Dotting his narrative throughout with references to classic space movies like Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff, Massimino shares his own intergalactic adventures in a way that is both endearing and incredible. His humble prose makes even experiences like meeting legendary astronaut Neil Armstrong seem almost casual, if remarkable, and relays the infectious awe he seems to possess at his obvious fortune.--Glendy X. Mattalia
Mattalia, Glendy X.
Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
Publishers Weekly. 263.34 (Aug. 22, 2016): p103.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
Mike Massimino. Crown Archetype, $28 (336p) ISBN 978-1-101-90354-4
Readers will be delighted and moved by retired astronaut Massimino's almost childlike wonder and enthusiasm, coupled with his humility, as he recounts the magnificence of space, the camaraderie of NASA in good times and bad, and a genuine gratitude for his good fortune. Inspired as a child by Neil Armstrong and the crew of the Apollo 11, Massimino was determined to one day join their ranks. That dream dimmed as he got older, but just as he was preparing for a career in the corporate world he saw the movie The Right Stuff, which reignited his fire and set him on a path that would finally lead him into orbit. Though the astronaut tests and training were some of the most challenging experiences of Massimino's life (which he dutifully recounts, warts and all), he made it, joining his fellow astronauts on two flights into space, including a nail-biting effort to repair a power supply panel on the Hubble Telescope. He also recounts what it was like to be at NASA during the 2003 Columbia shuttle tragedy. What could have been a rote, stoic memoir recounting dates and stats proves to be anything but. This is an engaging and uplifting memoir that's sure to give readers a deeper appreciation for the U.S. space program and inspire some future astronauts. (Oct.)
SPACEMAN
An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
by Mike Massimino
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KIRKUS REVIEW
A seasoned astronaut charts the trajectory of his love affair with space and astronomy.
Massimino’s memoir is a smooth combination of personal history and immersive storytelling. Motivated by a childhood preoccupation with space exploration and astronauts like Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and John Glenn, the author developed an obsession for the “reality of space travel” in his early years growing up on Long Island. Intensive academic studies at Columbia and MIT strengthened his resolve to pursue the space program—as did the tragedy of the 1986 Challenger explosion. Being accepted into the NASA space program (and overcoming some eyesight correction issues) made his dreams come true. Massimino writes of training for six years prior to embarking on his first interstellar mission aboard the NASA space shuttle Columbia in 2002 on a mission to rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope. Yet even with training on his side, the author admits that, as a rookie astronaut, “nothing you do on this planet can ever truly prepare you for what it means to leave it.” He also suspensefully re-creates his second mission into space to repair the telescope in 2008. Written in affable, conversational prose, the book delivers a sensory buffet of sights, sounds, and inspired images with an appealing urgency. Like Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars, Massimino’s memoir is stuffed with fascinating details about the unforeseen complications of weightlessness, the zero-gravity experience, and the intricate physical, psychological, and “gut-dropping, nerve-racking, panic-inducing situations” involved in the flight-readiness training program and actual spaceflight itself. Even readers with just a casual interest in space travel will find themselves glued to the page as the author braids a childhood dream and a desire to make a positive impact on the space program with the ambition and bravery required to be blasted 350 miles into low Earth orbit. Massimino makes having “the right stuff” both breathtaking and formidable.
A vivid, engrossing, and enthusiastically written memoir of aeronautic ambition.
Pub Date: Oct. 4th, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90354-4
Page count: 336pp
Publisher: Crown Archetype
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21st, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1st, 2016
Space
By SAM KEAN NOV. 25, 2016
SPACEMAN
An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
By Mike Massimino
313 pp. Crown Archetype, $28.
Minutes before his first spaceflight, Massimino had an epiphany: This was really
stupid. He hated heights and roller coasters, so why had he strapped himself into a
space shuttle, the most dangerous ride imaginable? If something malfunctioned
now, “all those years of training were completely pointless,” he realized. “There are
emergency placards and safety signs all over the interior of the shuttle. . . . That stuff
is there to give you something to read before you die.”
“Spaceman” isn’t a typical astronaut memoir. Massimino confesses to feeling
scared and inadequate sometimes, and rarely flatters himself. Some astronauts look
fighterpilot cool; he looks like “a guy who’d be working at a deli in Brooklyn,
handing out cold cuts.” In an engineering course in college, he once scored 11
percent on a midterm. He also failed his Ph.D. oral exam.
What kept Massimino going was an unrivaled ability to shrug off humiliation.
“Everyone from the NASA administrator to our janitorial support . . . had confidence
in me,” he writes about one low moment. “I needed to have the same confidence in
myself.” However hokey, these pep talks worked: He eventually became a NASA
“Jedi,” a member of the ace spacewalking crew that repaired the billiondollar
9
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Hubble Space Telescope in orbit. (Of course, being Massimino, he almost broke it
later.)
Still, Massimino was right to feel a premonition of death on his first launch. His
mission actually got swapped in NASA’s shuttle lineup with Mission 107 — the
Columbia flight that disintegrated over Texas in 2003. That should have been him
up there, and in a poignant scene he describes being flooded with memories as he
wandered the wreckage. Yet he supports continued human spaceflight, dismissing
the argument that unmanned probes can make progress more quickly. If nothing
else, he says, we need humans up there to inspire us. During astronaut training,
Massimino was merely adequate at most tasks, never the best. But after returning to
Earth, he began lecturing on his experiences, and he decided, “Maybe I could be one
of the best at telling the story of space.” If “Spaceman” is any indication, he might
well be.
Book Review: Spaceman
December 6, 2016 Science Connected astronaut, Hubble, Mike Massimino, space shuttle, spacewalk
Book Review: SpacemanTitle: Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
Reviewed by: Steven Spence for GotScience.org, a Science Connected publication
Author: Mike Massimino
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
On sale: October 4, 2016
Best for: teen and up
Reviewer’s rating: 5 out of 5
Every generation needs inspiration to keep the dream of human exploration and spaceflight alive. http://amzn.to/2hmjhK3
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Introduction
Mike Massimino, former space shuttle astronaut and current professor at Columbia University, shares his path with us in this autobiography. This isn’t about astronaut heroics and tales of superhuman feats. It’s a tale of Mike’s down-to-earth, gritty effort to do something he was passionate about—to reach for the stars.
About the Book
Every generation faces similar questions and choices. Do you take the safe choice, or do you dream big and take a riskier path to do what you feel passionate about?
Mike and I are basically from the same generation. He is old enough to remember Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. While I saw the Apollo 11 landing, the first memories of lunar exploration that I can be 100 percent sure are my own are of Alan Shepard hitting golf balls on the moon during the Apollo 14 mission. Both of us—along with many others in our generation—were inspired by humans doing the impossible: flying to the moon and back. It gave us a lifelong love of space exploration and science. Mike did something truly extraordinary: he made it into space twice, doing spacewalks to repair the Hubble space telescope on STS-109 (Space Shuttle Columbia) and STS-125 (Space Shuttle Atlantis). For the shuttle nerds among us, the Hubble missions were among the highest and fastest shuttle missions flown.
Mike’s background was a modest one. His father was a safety inspector for the New York City Fire Department, and his mother was a seamstress. Mike wasn’t the best in school, but he was the best all-rounder. He went to undergraduate school at Columbia and later applied to MIT for graduate school. In fact, Mike mistakenly applied to the wrong graduate program, was accepted, then had to withdraw and reapply to the correct one. He struggled with his master’s degree and faced a tough choice about what to do next. Fortunately, he had a mentor who encouraged him to keep going after what he was passionate about. Mike decided to go for his PhD at MIT but performed horribly at his first qualifying exam. With the help of other PhD candidates and his own dogged determination to succeed, Mike passed the qualifying exam the second time.
That’s one of the main themes throughout his book. Don’t give up; go back and try harder. Mike faced failure multiple times, both academically and professionally. He learned that success isn’t a one-man show. Teamwork and family are two of the other leitmotifs recurring throughout his life.
Spaceman is ultimately about human spaceflight, and the book won’t disappoint. It delivers an insider’s view of becoming an astronaut, training for a mission, and being out there in space, where the success or failure of a mission comes down to the actions of humans. Mike was in one of the highest-profile missions ever: repairing the Hubble space telescope on one of the last shuttle flights. It was a close thing and came down to an astronaut improvising a solution to gain access to a power supply never intended to be serviced.
“Imagine you’re standing on top of the Empire State Building in Manhattan holding a laser pointer. Now imagine I’m down in DC on top of the Washington Monument holding up a dime, and you’re able to hit that dime with your laser pointer. Now imagine that you and the Empire State Building are moving 17,500 miles per hour in one direction, and the Washington Monument and my dime are moving thousands of miles per hour away from you in a different direction, and you can still hold that spot on the dime even as we hurtle away from each other in opposite directions at incredible speeds.”
Conclusion
Every generation needs inspiration to keep the dream of human exploration and spaceflight alive. For one generation it was Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier, for another Yuri Gagarin or John Glenn orbiting the Earth, or, later, Neil Armstrong and the Apollo astronauts landing on the moon. Mike Massimino, along with the shuttle astronauts and the International Space Station astronauts, has kept the dream alive for the current generation. Mike’s autobiography will hopefully inspire the next generation to keep working on their dreams, whether those dreams are to build rockets, create life support systems, write computer programs, or possibly one day walk on the surface of Mars. Although Mike is too modest to admit it, he’s become a legend just like the astronauts he looked up to: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins, Jim Lovell, John Young, and many more.
Mike’s book is not a book about a superman. He’s very relatable, open, and even humorous in sharing his path to the stars. The path was rocky and sometimes seemed to be going the wrong way, but his passion for what he was doing helped him to climb to heights few have ever reached. This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in human spaceflight. I consider it an outstanding choice for anyone trying to decide what to study or facing challenges in their studies, especially for anyone considering or already in a STEM field.
“When it came to the work of being an astronaut, I was good but I wasn’t the best. I wasn’t the best guy with the shuttle systems. I wasn’t even the best spacewalker. But maybe I could be one of the best at telling the story of space. Maybe I could make it fun and lively and adventurous like it used to be.”
Mike, you succeeded in writing one of the best books about spaceflight that I’ve read in years.
About the Author
Mike Massimino served as an astronaut for NASA between 1996 and 2014, going on two missions to service the Hubble telescope and spending more than 30 hours on spacewalks. He has appeared as himself on The Big Bang Theory and is now a professor at the University of Columbia. He lives in New York. Mike was the first astronaut to tweet from space and can be followed @Astro_Mike.