University Astronautica

by T.D. McCay, Ph.D.

I have seen at least a dozen ads from different universities about one of their graduates going into space.  At Florida Tech we have had a half dozen or so of those ourselves.  When I used to be a full-time faculty member I used to have a lot of students come with that as their goal and I would try really hard to make them see how difficult that is and not to plan a whole career at the age of 18 that had so little chance for success. Now several of those young people have made it and I now encourage rather that discourage.  The chances are still small but our graduates have a much better chance than those from other schools.  We even have three on our faculty, two that flew and one other that missed her chance due to the Challenger accident.  Those three have served as mentors for several others who made it.  With a new era dawning for space flight, we will have a new batch coming soon.  I am sure several of those will have Florida Tech diplomas.