Alumnus Wilmore to pilot shuttle to the International Space Station this fall

This fall, more than 25 years after sitting out a TTU football season with a knee injury, Barry Wilmore (electrical engineering ‘85, M.A. ‘94) will be able to look back and see how the challenge led him to unexpected heights.

In fact, he’ll be looking back at Earth from his pilot’s seat on NASA’s next space shuttle mission, scheduled for this November. Chosen as an astronaut candidate in 2000, he’s now ready to take the STS-129 crew to the International Space Station.

“I always think about how things happen for a reason; how well-trained, well-educated people still have to have circumstances fall into place in order for an opportunity to come,” said Wilmore. “It’s quite humbling; I credit Jesus Christ for my opportunity here. It’s important to me the glory goes to him.”

After Wilmore earned his bachelor’s degree, he thought he was done with football and applied to the U.S. Navy. But he failed the physical because of his knee. Then he made the less than obvious choice to use his remaining year of eligibility to play football and attend graduate school.

“Every tool I need I got at Tech,” he said. “From chemistry to physics to football, it all helps me.”

After several more physicals, the Navy gave him a shot. By 1987, he was in Corpus Christi, Texas, flying A-4s for the Navy. He flew 21 missions in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, then conducted initial flight tests for the T-45, and later spent a year as a Navy Test Pilot School instructor.

He took a field trip to Johnson Space Center in 1992, and what he saw fascinated him.

“I loved learning about Apollo missions as a boy,” said Wilmore. “And although I’m always sure there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes I have trouble finding which tunnel is mine. The trip helped me decide.”

But Wilmore first finished his master’s in 1994 – because he promised his mom he would.

After five years of flying F-18s and two more deployments, Wilmore became a test pilot instructor at Edwards Air Force Base as part of a Navy/Air Force exchange.

Following two years of training and evaluation as an astronaut candidate, he was assigned technical duties representing the astronaut office on all propulsion systems issues including the space shuttle main engines, solid rocket motor, and external tank. He also served on the astronaut support team that traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in support of launch and landing operations.

During the upcoming mission, the crew will deliver two Express Logistics Carriers to the International Space Station, take four spacewalks and bring back Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk.

For more information about STS-129 mission, visit www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts129/index.html.

(Summer 2009)