{"id":19684,"date":"2014-11-18T21:33:30","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T21:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/d45h139.public.uconn.edu\/sites\/news\/?p=19684"},"modified":"2014-11-18T21:33:30","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T21:33:30","slug":"back-on-earth-and-back-on-campus-astronaut-rick-mastracchio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/11\/back-on-earth-and-back-on-campus-astronaut-rick-mastracchio\/","title":{"rendered":"Back on Earth, and Back on Campus: Astronaut Rick Mastracchio Talks About Life in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"RickM-4\"<\/a>
Rick Mastracchio talks to the crowd at the Student Union Theater<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astronaut and UConn alum Rick Mastracchio was on campus recently, where he spoke of the virtues of persistence, staying in touch with family while you\u2019re in space, and chasing his breakfast on the International Space Station<\/p>\n

Mastracchio’s visit comes about\u00a0six months after\u00a0his commencement speech to graduates of\u00a0the School of Engineering. He made\u00a0that speech from space,\u00a0and made international news in the process. At the Student Union Theater on Tuesday, he was fully present and down to Earth.\u00a0 His hour-long talk touched on everything from the harrowing (unplanned, urgent spacewalks), to the perils of eating in zero gravity – \u201cBroccoli was the worst! We\u2019d have to chase it down and scrape it off the walls!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mastracchio, who grew up in Waterbury, graduated from UConn with a bachelor\u2019s degree in electrical engineering and computer science. He began his career with Hamilton Standard, which is now UTC Aerospace Systems. In the 1980s, he transferred to Houston, where he supported 17 NASA missions as a flight controller. He came to UConn\u00a0ith his wife Candi and several other family members.<\/p>\n

During this most recent stay aboard the International Space Station, Mastracchio conducted three spacewalks. The first two were to remove and replace a faulty cooling pump, and the third to remove and replace a failed backup computer relay box. During the expedition, the crew completed 3,008 orbits of the Earth and traveled more than 79.8 million miles, returning to Earth after 188 days in space. His\u00a0talk was accompanied by a 20-minute video of\u00a0that stay on the Space Station, which included bringing the torch for the 2014 Sochi Olympics on board.<\/p>\n

Mastracchio\u2019s career has entailed\u00a0traveling a literally astronomical 5 million miles,\u00a0and he has\u00a0logged 228 days in space spanning four missions\u00a0– including nine spacewalks totaling 53 hours. Yet it began in an ordinary enough fashion: with a want ad. \u201cAstronauts wanted,\u201d it read. Mastracchio applied, and was one of about 100 selected for interviews, and he was turned down. He persisted in his attempt to become an astronaut –\u00a0with similar results –\u00a0for nine years. In the meantime, he built up his resume and\u00a0acquired\u00a0a pilot\u2019s license. Eventually, he got the call from NASA telling him that he was selected. Today, after all he\u2019s been through as an astronaut, he still considers that the most exciting moment of his career.<\/p>\n

Mastracchio\u2019s talk demonstrated not just his persistence but a boundless curiosity. He spoke of his fascination watching a group of ants on the Space Station. \u201cSome flailed about, and others were more cautious \u2013 I don\u2019t know why!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RickM-1\"<\/a>
From left: Kazem Kazerounian, Dean of the UConn School of Engineering; Rick Mastracchio; and Michael Accorsi, Senior Associate Dean of the School of Engineering<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One takeaway from the talk is that pretty much everything is amazing in space. The video showed Mastracchio gliding through the Space Station, effortlessly carting a 200-pound bag of trash. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more fun to take the trash out in zero-G,\u201d he said. \u201cIt kind of takes itself out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theater was packed, mostly with students. Mastracchio spoke with many of them before the talk, often posing for photos with them. He also answered questions from the crowd. Asked if he was \u201cterrified\u201d the first time he went into space, Mastracchio said he wasn\u2019t, thanks to his years of preparation. \u201cIf you know what\u2019s going to be on a test, you\u2019re not nervous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for communicating with his family, it has gotten surprisingly easy. Email once took a day to deliver and another day to receive a response;\u00a0now it only takes a few minutes. The Space Station is equipped with a phone that can call anywhere in the world, and soon, astronauts will be able to use Skype whenever they want. \u201cWhen I was in space, my son said \u2018I talk to you more now than when you\u2019re home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny plans to go back?\u201d a student asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m definitely still eligible,\u201d he said. But there are a number of people in his office who haven\u2019t gotten any space experience, he said, and aren\u2019t so eager to have Mastracchio make a another\u00a0trip into space. \u201cThey want their turn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astronaut and UConn alum Rick Mastracchio was on campus Tuesday to talk about his career and the particulars of everyday life on the Space Station.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[40],"class_list":["post-19684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engr"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 07:15:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19684"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=19684"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=19684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}