The Beauty of Nature — The Art of Technology: An evening with Story Musgrave
Free and open to the public
Thursday, April 22, 2010
7:30 p.m.
Ives Concert Hall, White Hall
Western Connecticut State University Midtown campus
Danbury, Connecticut
Story Musgrave may be the most accomplished person you ever meet.
He was an astronaut from 1967 to 1997 who flew into space six times, tying him for the most space flights of any human. His last made him the oldest person at that point to go into orbit.
Musgrave was the lead spacewalker on the first space shuttle flight to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, an 11-day, five-spacewalk effort described by author Robert Zimmerman, who wrote “The Universe in a Mirror,” as “one of the most spectacular space missions ever.”
The mission restored perfect vision to the telescope, which since has led to discoveries about the age of the universe and its expansion, black holes, and evidence of planets outside our solar system. Scientists have published more than 8,000 papers based on Hubble data. An important part of Hubble’s legacy is the thousands of photographs that reveal the beauty and mystery of space to non-scientists.
The mirror and fine guidance system for the Hubble Space Telescope were built in Danbury by Perkin-Elmer Corp., now Goodrich ISR Systems.
Although Musgrave dropped out of high school, he discovered a passion for learning when he joined the Marines as an aircraft electrician and engine mechanic. He was taught to fly in the military and over the next 55 years accumulated 18,000 hours of flight time in more than 160 aircraft. An accomplished parachutist, he has made more than 800 free falls — including more than 100 experimental free-fall descents to study human aerodynamics.
Musgrave has earned seven graduate degrees in math, computers, chemistry, physiology, literature, medicine and psychology.
And during his 30-year astronaut career he was a part-time trauma surgeon.
Today Musgrave operates a palm farm in Orlando, Fla., a production company in Sydney and a sculpture company in Burbank, Calif. He is also a concept artist with Walt Disney Imagineering and a professor of design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif.
In one way, Musgrave is not unique. Like other astronauts who have orbited earth to make repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope, he returned with a profound personal connection to the telescope, which some have called the greatest invention of the 20th century.
“When I was a kid, I liked to lie on my back and watch the stars at night,” Musgrave said in an interview with The New York Times. “I've thought of that instrument as contributing to my personal ideas about my place in the universe, about what it is to be human.”
This President’s Lecture is sponsored by The President’s Club.
For more information, call the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486 or the Office of the President at (203) 837-8754
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WCSU will offer credit for this program. Pre-registration is required to earn CEUs. For information, call (203) 837-8486.
