UH Cullen College of Engineering alum Rex Walheim (1989 MSIE) will be aboard the Atlantis (STS-122) mission when it blasts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February 7. The launch has been delayed twice due to the failure of two engine cutoff sensors.
During the mission, the STS-122 crew will be delivering and installing a laboratory module on the International Space Station. Columbus, as it is called, will be installed during three spacewalks, all of which Walheim will be participating in. This trip marks the 100th spacewalk completed by NASA crews in an effort to assemble the space station.
The STS-122 mission will be Walheim's second flight to the space station aboard Atlantis. In 2002, he flew on the STS-110 mission to install a truss.
For more information on the STS-122 Atlantis mission or to watch the launch live via the web, visit https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
For an in depth alumni profile on Rex Walheim, check out the following article, which appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of Parameters magazine.