Stanley Love

Astronaut, Ph.D. in astronomy

Education

• Doctorate in astronomy, UW
• Master's degree in astronomy, UW
• Bachelor's degree in physics, Harvey Mudd College

Career path

• Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii and California Institute of Technology
• Staff engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• NASA astronaut

Background

As a kid in Eugene, Ore., Stan was captivated by the Apollo missions to the moon at the time and toted a lunchbox covered with rockets. It wasn't until he got to college that he realized a space-related career was within his reach.

The UW's advantage

After graduating from college with a physics degree, Stan decided the best way to continue pursuing his passions was graduate school. He also knew that he wanted to study something closer to the realm of everyday experience, not just some far-out, galactic stuff he'd never touch.

So he focused his graduate studies on interplanetary dust, the rocks and debris produced mostly when asteroids collide in space. These tiny meteorites, about the same diameter as a human hair, rain down on the earth constantly. It's possible to collect them by affixing a sticky plate to the wing of an airplane, and then astronomers like Stan can scrutinize the objects with sophisticated electron microscopes.

Stan enrolled at the UW because of its astronomy program's strong reputation and Seattle's allure, including its booming local music scene. He financed his master's and then doctoral work through teaching and research assistantships.

On becoming an astronaut

After graduate school, Stan continued his scientific work through prestigious postdoctoral research positions at the University of Hawaii and California Institute of Technology. He then worked briefly as a staff engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before landing his dream role: selection as an astronaut in June 1998.

Stan's scientific background made him different from many of his fellow astronauts, who tend to be engineers. "The best astronauts are engineers and test pilots, whose career from the beginning has been operating complicated machinery in dangerous places," he said. "That's really the essence of being an astronaut; you're a backhoe operator except the backhoe is very expensive and complicated and you're doing work in a very dangerous place."

Stan credits the intensity of his UW graduate degree with allowing him to reinvent himself from scientist to astronaut. Some people who obtain graduate degrees study their thesis topics for the rest of their lives. But Stan thought of his degree in another way: certification that he could become "an expert in a difficult technical topic in a few years."

Greatest adventure

The next decade brought a series of trainings and technical assignments, culminating in one of Stan's greatest life adventures: his first spaceflight as part of the crew aboard the Atlantis shuttle. Their mission in February 2008 was to install the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory on the International Space Station.

The two-week space shuttle journey brought a lengthy highlight reel. There was the moment when the engines first lighted, and then, eight minutes later, when the engines shut down, and suddenly he was weightless. And, of course, there was the moment when Stan opened the space station's hatch to embark on his first spacewalk.

"It's this three-foot diameter hole you crawl out of, and you're looking straight down," he said. "There were the Swiss Alps going by at 17,000 miles per hour, 200 miles beneath us."

That first spacewalk took on an unexpected, extra nerve-fraying twist. After launch, doctors concluded that one crew member was too ill to carry out his scheduled spacewalk, so Stan agreed to fill in.

He'd trained extensively for his one assigned spacewalk through detailed underwater simulations of his tasks, complete with a model of the International Space Station in a giant swimming pool. But nothing had quite prepared him for the substitute role.

"We've had totally unplanned spacewalks, but we've not dropped somebody into someone else's planned timeline where the crew member had the chance to practice in the pool over and over," Stan said. "Not only was it something I had never done before, it was not something the agency had done before."

By the time the crew touched down, Stan had logged more than 15 hours outside of the shuttle in two successful spacewalks.

On the shuttle program's final days

It's bittersweet to see the shuttle program on its final flights, Stan said. As a close friend of several crew members killed in the 2003 Columbia shuttle explosion, he pointed to the need for safer equipment. And as a taxpayer, he spoke of the need to reduce the costs of owning and operating such vehicles.

"I'm sorry to see it go, it's a good friend," he said of the shuttle program, "but we can and should do better."

Photo courtesy of NASA