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Education

UCSD Graduate Blasts Into Space Aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis

By Ed Joyce / Reporter
Published May 11, 2009 at 8:00 AM PDT
This story was published more than 14 years ago.
Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 astronauts, (R-L) commander Scott Altman, pilot Greg Johnson, mission specialists Megan McArthur, mission specialists John Grunsfeld, Mission Specialist Andrew J. Feustel, and mission specialist Michael T. Good wave as they prepare to head to the launch pad for a 2:01pm launch today at Kennedy Space Center on May 11, 2009 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Joe Raedle
Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 astronauts, (R-L) commander Scott Altman, pilot Greg Johnson, mission specialists Megan McArthur, mission specialists John Grunsfeld, Mission Specialist Andrew J. Feustel, and mission specialist Michael T. Good wave as they prepare to head to the launch pad for a 2:01pm launch today at Kennedy Space Center on May 11, 2009 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

UCSD Graduate Blasts Into Space Aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis
An astronaut who earned her doctorate at UC San Diego was blasted into space today aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, which took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a mission to make improvements to the Hubble Space Telescope.

One of the seven astronauts on the Space Shuttle trip to repair the Hubble Telescope is a graduate of UC San Diego. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce was on the La Jolla campus Monday as a group watched Megan McArthur's maiden voyage.

Sixty UCSD faculty, staff, students and friends gathered to view the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on a theatre-sized screen. Megan McArthur, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography graduate, is the only woman and one of four rookie astronauts on the 11-day Hubble mission.

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McArthur received a doctorate in Oceanography from Scripps in 2002. The 37-year-old was once a volunteer show diver in the Birch Aquarium's kelp tank. Scripps Institution of Oceanography Professor William Hodgkiss was McArthur's faculty advisor. He says her engineering studies at UCLA and work in ocean sciences at Scripps dovetail with her tasks in space.

"The nature of the work draws on physics and mathematics and understanding how acoustics interacts with the seafloor in the ocean," Hodgkiss says. "And so because it's mathematical, it's physically-based, translates directly into anything you do in terms of science or supporting science on a space mission."

McArthur will use robotic arms to stabilize and assist astronauts working on the Hubble during five planned spacewalks.

Officials say operating the arms is like brain surgery in orbit. Former NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, who lives in San Diego, approved McArthur's selection to the space program nine years ago.

"And I remember Megan, what a powerful resume. What an incredible interest in opening the space frontier. So she did it on merit," he says.

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The shuttle engines kicked in and the group viewing the launch also amped up.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

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Ed Joyce
Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.
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