Astronaut James Reilly to Tread Familiar Ground In Talk at UTD About International Space Station

Astronaut James Reilly to Tread Familiar Ground
In Talk at UTD About International Space Station

RICHARDSON, Texas (Feb. 20, 2002) - When NASA astronaut Dr. James F. Reilly, III, visits The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) next month to discuss the International Space Station, he’ll be on familiar ground in several respects. He is an alumnus of UTD and had a hand in building the space station.

Reilly received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.d. degrees in Geosciences from UTD before becoming
an astronaut. Last July, he was aboard the space shuttle Atlantis on a mission (designated STS-104) that delivered and installed an airlock on the space station.

“I plan to address the assembly of the International Space Station in general and flight STS-104 in particular,” Reilly said about his appearance at UTD on Friday, March 22, at 4 p.m. “On STS-104, we delivered, installed and inaugurated the airlock module ‘Quest.’ During this flight, fellow astronaut Mike Gernhardt and I performed three spacewalks for a total of 16.5 hours.”

According to Reilly, the space station is being constructed in a modular fashion, with all work being done by crews from both the shuttle and the space station. During last July’s mission, Reilly and Gernhardt, together with several colleagues in the space station employing a robotic arm, installed the airlock, then added four high pressure gas tanks to supply the structure with oxygen and nitrogen. The completed airlock was then tested and verified to be operational.

In addition to the space station, Reilly will discuss the earth observation aspects of spaceflight, including how photos taken by astronauts are being used by earth scientists for inexpensive imagery and for time-series monitoring of surface and atmospheric processes.

Reilly will also explain how individuals may acquire space imagery and request new photos be taken from space.

The lecture is free and open to the public. It will be held in Room 2.102 in the Founder’s North building on the university’s campus in Richardson. For additional information about the event, please call UTD’s Geosciences Department, 972-883-2401.

For additional information about Reilly, his biography may be viewed on the NASA web site at http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/bios/htmlbios/reilly.html.

More information about the International Space Station is available on various web sites, including http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/index.html, http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/ and http://www.shuttlepresskit.com/ISS_OVR/index.htm.

About UTD

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls more than 7,000 undergraduate and 5,000 graduate students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu.