FLYguy

Stan Love ’87 has a different perspective than most. That’s what happens when you view earth from 200 miles away. Stan, who learned to fly planes while at Mudd and went on to study asteroids, meteorites and impact craters as a planetary scientist, was one of the crew on Space Shuttle mission STS- 122 (February 2008). Stan spent eight hours “walking” in space, longer than all but a few other astronauts in NASA history. He appreciates how some fundamental lessons taught at HMC apply to astronaut life.

HMC ALUMNI PROFILE PHYSICS GRADUATE, HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE

STAN LOVE ’87

PLANETARY SCIENTIST NASA ASTRONAUT

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SORRY, I GOTTA FLY “While I was at Mudd, the Bates Aeronautics Program at HMC [program concluded in 1990] taught a few fortunate Mudders how to put aside our schoolwork and social concerns and really concentrate on flying. NASA astronauts fly in sleek jets (super-fast T38s), where it’s important to focus on what you’re doing because things happen fast at 600 mph. It’s even more important in the Shuttle at 17,000 miles per hour.”

IT TAKES A TEAM “At Mudd, teamwork was essential in order to succeed. Later, at NASA, the same was true. The Shuttle crew participated in teamwork exercises to get used to working with each other. More than anything else, astronauts depend on each other to do their jobs correctly and safely.”

LOOKING FOR AN ENGINEER WHO CAN DESIGN A CRUISE MISSILE ONE DAY AND A CANTILEVERED “BRA” THE NEXT? GET A MUDDER. “This kind of flexibility is critical for space flight. There aren’t enough seats on the Shuttle to bring an army of experts on every flight, so the on-orbit mission is executed by a few versatile people. During the mission, I learned I was to be the stand-in for an astronaut who fell ill. I had trained only as a backup and had two days to prepare for my first space walk. Luckily, my prior training as an arm operator prepared me for it, and we managed to get all of the important stuff done.”

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