9/1/2020 10:51:00 AM | Wrestling
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Victor Glover, the fourth Cal Poly alumnus to serve as an astronaut, and three other members of Crew-1 will be inside the Crew Dragon capsule when SpaceX launches its first full-length astronaut mission from Cape Canaveral in late October.
A member of Cal Poly's wrestling team in the mid-1990s, Glover was among eight candidates named to NASA's 21st astronaut class in 2013. In August 2018, he was assigned to fly on the first operational flight, and the second crewed flight overall, of SpaceX's Crew Dragon.Â
Crew-1 will launch no earlier than Oct. 23 and the four astronauts will spend six months on the International Space Station, conducting research and performing other tasks.
The other three on the mission are NASA's Mike Hopkins and Shannon Walker and the Japanese Space Agency's Soichi Noguchi. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will lift the capsule into space arrived in Florida in July to prepare for the Crew-1 launch.Â
Glover, who will be the pilot for Crew-1, will be flying in space for the first time.
"I am overwhelmed and humbled to be a part of the @SpaceX team for my first flight!" Glover tweeted. "Feeling extremely grateful that the agency and our leadership have confidence in these crews to be part of such a critical mission. This is a big step for @NASA and for our Nation!"
Announcement of the launch date came about two weeks after the successful completion of the SpaceX Demo-2 test flight, which carried a pair of NASA astronauts in the company's first-ever crewed mission. Launched on May 30 and docked at the space station the next day, the astronauts spent two months in the International Space Station before returning to Earth with splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico on August 2.
SpaceX and NASA are currently reviewing data from the Demo-2 mission. Assuming no major issues are found, NASA will then certify SpaceX's rocket and capsule system to regularly fly astronauts to the International Space Station.
Glover, a 1999 Cal Poly graduate in general engineering, is a current member of the Athletic Directors Council. In November 2018, he was presented the Sandra Gardebring Ogren Leadership Award.
Though an engineering graduate, Glover also credits his role as a member of the Cal Poly wrestling team during the 1994-95 season with helping prepare him for work as an astronaut.
"Wrestling was one of the most indelible influences in my life," he said during a speech at Cal Poly in 2015. "Someone asks me about being in the pool at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and doing the EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) training. I compare it to wrestling and how you have to be able to think in 3-D and think moves ahead if you want to go from good to great.
"Wrestling had just as much of an impact on me as the things I was learning in the lab or in engineering," Glover added.
Cal Poly's other three astronauts are:Â
• Robert L. "Hoot" Gibson (Captain, USN, Ret.) (B.S., Aerospace Engineering, 1969), a four-time commander on the space shuttle and recent inductee in the National Aviation Hall of Fame.Â
• Greg Chamitoff (B.S., Electrical Engineering, 1984), who twice flew to the International Space Station, for six months in 2008 and 15 days in 2011; he performed a spacewalk on the 2011 mission which completed the construction of the International Space Station.
• Frederick "Rick" Sturckow (Colonel, USMC, Ret.) (B.S., Mechanical Engineering, 1984), a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions, twice as a pilot and two more as a commander; He left NASA in 2013 to become a pilot for Virgin Galactic and reached outer space with the VSS Unity.Â
One of eight astronauts selected from a pool of over 6,100 candidates in 2013, Glover completed his two-year astronaut training in 2015 at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.Â
The California native and 1994 graduate of Ontario (Calif.) High School holds master's degrees in flight test engineering, systems engineering, and military operational art and science. Glover is a naval aviator and was a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet, Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler. He accumulated 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft, over 400 carrier-arrested landings and 24 combat missions for the United States Navy.
ÂGallery: (9-1-2020) Victor Glover Gallery
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A member of Cal Poly's wrestling team in the mid-1990s, Glover was among eight candidates named to NASA's 21st astronaut class in 2013. In August 2018, he was assigned to fly on the first operational flight, and the second crewed flight overall, of SpaceX's Crew Dragon.Â
Crew-1 will launch no earlier than Oct. 23 and the four astronauts will spend six months on the International Space Station, conducting research and performing other tasks.
The other three on the mission are NASA's Mike Hopkins and Shannon Walker and the Japanese Space Agency's Soichi Noguchi. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will lift the capsule into space arrived in Florida in July to prepare for the Crew-1 launch.Â
Glover, who will be the pilot for Crew-1, will be flying in space for the first time."I am overwhelmed and humbled to be a part of the @SpaceX team for my first flight!" Glover tweeted. "Feeling extremely grateful that the agency and our leadership have confidence in these crews to be part of such a critical mission. This is a big step for @NASA and for our Nation!"
Announcement of the launch date came about two weeks after the successful completion of the SpaceX Demo-2 test flight, which carried a pair of NASA astronauts in the company's first-ever crewed mission. Launched on May 30 and docked at the space station the next day, the astronauts spent two months in the International Space Station before returning to Earth with splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico on August 2.
SpaceX and NASA are currently reviewing data from the Demo-2 mission. Assuming no major issues are found, NASA will then certify SpaceX's rocket and capsule system to regularly fly astronauts to the International Space Station.
Glover, a 1999 Cal Poly graduate in general engineering, is a current member of the Athletic Directors Council. In November 2018, he was presented the Sandra Gardebring Ogren Leadership Award.
Though an engineering graduate, Glover also credits his role as a member of the Cal Poly wrestling team during the 1994-95 season with helping prepare him for work as an astronaut.
"Wrestling was one of the most indelible influences in my life," he said during a speech at Cal Poly in 2015. "Someone asks me about being in the pool at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and doing the EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) training. I compare it to wrestling and how you have to be able to think in 3-D and think moves ahead if you want to go from good to great.
"Wrestling had just as much of an impact on me as the things I was learning in the lab or in engineering," Glover added.
Cal Poly's other three astronauts are:Â
• Robert L. "Hoot" Gibson (Captain, USN, Ret.) (B.S., Aerospace Engineering, 1969), a four-time commander on the space shuttle and recent inductee in the National Aviation Hall of Fame.Â
• Greg Chamitoff (B.S., Electrical Engineering, 1984), who twice flew to the International Space Station, for six months in 2008 and 15 days in 2011; he performed a spacewalk on the 2011 mission which completed the construction of the International Space Station.
• Frederick "Rick" Sturckow (Colonel, USMC, Ret.) (B.S., Mechanical Engineering, 1984), a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions, twice as a pilot and two more as a commander; He left NASA in 2013 to become a pilot for Virgin Galactic and reached outer space with the VSS Unity.Â
One of eight astronauts selected from a pool of over 6,100 candidates in 2013, Glover completed his two-year astronaut training in 2015 at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.Â
The California native and 1994 graduate of Ontario (Calif.) High School holds master's degrees in flight test engineering, systems engineering, and military operational art and science. Glover is a naval aviator and was a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet, Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler. He accumulated 3,000 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft, over 400 carrier-arrested landings and 24 combat missions for the United States Navy.
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