I have spent the last month totally immersed in the Space Shuttle mission to Hubble. One of my classmates in graduate school married the man she was dating at the time. He was accepted into the astronaut program in 2000 and we’ve remained in contact through e-mail, family and mutual friends. After we expressed interest in attending the launch, we received an envelope from the Johnson Space Center which set things in motion.

Drew Feustel had great success on the mission, starting with his first space walk where he had to remove a stuck bolt to remove the old camera on Hubble. Fortunately, he was able to do it — if not, Hubble would not have the benefit of the new camera that will start to deliver data and photos by the end of the summer.

Who would have known that a person I knew from university would become an astronaut? I’m still amazed. And I really like the fact that he was on the mission with a woman astronaut, Megan McArthur . I met some of her family at the launch and told them how much I admired her.

Bravo to the crew of STS-125 on a most successful mission!

Addendum:  November 17, 2009

I just found a link to a story on ABC News about the value of Drew’s mechanical skills for repairing equipment in space.  It’s amusing to hear Indi say that she didn’t know he wanted to be an astronaut until they moved to Houston.  [thanks to Autoblog for the link]