Veteran astronaut to give talk at museum

"You don’t have to be Superman, you don’t have to be Einstein, you don’t have to be Da Vinci."

Veteran astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is a firm believer that human spaceflight is possible for the vast majority of us.

"You just have to be open-minded and willing to learn."

It is a message the 67-year-old will be sharing with the public during his visit to Tūhura Otago Museum next week.

He is one of the United States’ most experienced astronauts, having completed six space missions, commanded three of them and spent 296 days in space.

He holds Nasa records for the most spacewalks (10) and the longest cumulative time on spacewalks (67 hours, 40 minutes), and was inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2020.

He was on mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-73) in 1995, Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-92) in 2000 and Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-113) in 2002.

During flight STS-92, he tested the SAFER jet backpack with fellow astronaut Jeff Wisoff, flying up to 15m from Discovery.

And in 2006, he commanded the Russian Soyuz TMA-9 rocket and Expedition 14 aboard the International Space Station, which lasted 215 days.

Following his retirement from Nasa in March 2012, he served as president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation until the end of 2014 and continued as an independent consultant to traditional and commercial space companies, serving on several advisory boards and committees to public and private organisations.

But then in 2017, he joined privately funded commercial spaceflight company Axiom Space as director of business development, only to find himself in the astronaut’s seat again.

He flew in space again in 2022 as commander of Axiom Mission 1 — the first Axiom SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station — and again on Axiom Mission 3 in January last year.

Commander Lopez-Alegria will be at the Hutton Theatre on October 5 for a free talk and Q&A session, starting at 2pm.

Marketing manager Charles Buchan said the visit was a rare opportunity for the community and he urged people to book a seat for it.

"Working with the Embassy to bring visitors like Michael to Tūhura Otago Museum allows tamariki and the wider public to experience science and exploration in a truly inspiring way.

"We might be at the bottom of the world, but that doesn’t mean we have to miss out on incredible experiences like this, so we work hard to make it possible."

United States Mission to New Zealand public affairs officer Alexia Branch said the event aimed to showcase world-class research, build industry connections, strengthen partnerships between the two countries and inspire the next generation of New Zealanders in science and technology.

It was also a rare chance for the Dunedin community to meet a decorated astronaut, hear firsthand about life in space and discover the future of commercial spaceflight, she said.

john.lewis@odt.co.nz