Community Corner

Rex Walheim Makes Third Trip To Space

The San Carlos native embarks of third space shuttle trip, and the final for NASA.

A San Carlos native will be one of four astronauts who are scheduled to make history Friday as they rocket into space for the final space shuttle mission for NASA.

Rex Walheim, 48, who grew up in the community and a veteran of two previous missions, will be a mission specialist on the final flight for space shuttle Atlantis.

“To find out I was assigned to it was really tremendously exciting because I just, like I say, I enjoy this program so much, I want to be there till the last wheel stop, and to think that I’ll be riding on the vehicle till the last wheel stop is really an incredible opportunity and I’m very thankful for,” Wilhelm said in a preflight interview with NASA.gov. (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts135/interview_walheim.html)

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“The space shuttle program has been amazing what it’s done, all the great accomplishments, and you just don’t want to let that momentum down, and so there is a lot of pressure to do your job right and to, and like I say, to finish strong,” he added.

This will be his third space shuttle mission, flying in 2002 aboard Atlantis to the International Space Station where he participated in two spacewalks. He flew again on Atlantis in 2008 to the space station where he performed three spacewalks.

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But before he was rocketing into space, he studied locally, graduating in 1980 from San Carlos High School. He then who went on to receive a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering in 1984 from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master of science degree in industrial engineering five years later from the University of Houston.

He was selected to join NASA in 1996, and help develop items for the International Space Station before flying aboard Atlantis. While he may be miles above Earth on his missions, he still thinks about home.

In an interview with NASA prior to launch, he talked about looking for his hometown from space on his first mission and locating it by finding Highway 280 and the airport.

“It was just a fantastic thing to be able to see your hometown from space, to think, when I was a little kid I used to look up and watch the airplanes fly over in my backyard and here I was flying over at Mach 25 and looking down at my hometown,” he said in the interview.

On this mission, he will be helping monitor the systems in the shuttle during the flight into space and then will help with docking with the space station. Once docked, he will help move supplies from the shuttle to the space station in addition to helping with the spacewalks during the mission.

While the mission is full of important jobs on the shuttle and space station, Walheim shared that he will try to take a moment to enjoy the view.

“Hopefully, I’ll have a chance for a few seconds to look back on the space station and say, look at what we’re building together, we’re building a space station, and just really appreciate, just for a few seconds, and then get back to work,” he said.

 


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