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CU-Boulder in Space
Commanding
spacecraft ranging from Mercury space capsules to space shuttles, the
CU-Boulder astronaut alumni are testament to the confidence NASA has
shown in the university's faculty and students. Campus researchers
began their foray into the Space Age in the late 1940s by sending instruments
and experiments into the heavens on sounding rockets.
Since then, NASA spacecraft have launched
17 CU-Boulder alumni on 40 space missions,
spanning virtually the entire manned space
flight program. CU-Boulder is the only research
institution in the world to design and build
space instruments for NASA that have been
launched to every planet in the solar system.
CU-Boulder ranks among the top five U.S.
universities, excluding military academies,
in the number of astronaut alumni. Also,
CU-Boulder annually ranks among the top universities
in the nation in NASA funding.
CU-Boulder's space presence began with Scott Carpenter, one of the original
seven astronauts selected by NASA who flew on the second American-manned
orbital flight in 1962, piloting his Mercury capsule three times around
Earth. Carpenter, who earned an honorary bachelor's degree in 1962,
subsequently was in the Navy's Man-in-the-Sea Program, spending 30 days
living and working on the ocean floor, becoming the only human to thoroughly
explore both outer and inner space.
CU Alumni Astronauts and
Recent Missions
Current
NASA Missions Involving CU
Videos
and Podcasts
Page
2: More News Releases
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