Two Rensselaer alumni, Rick Mastracchio ’87 and Reid Wiseman ’97, will fly separate missions to NASA’s International Space Station. Mastracchio graduated in 1987 with a master’s degree in electrical engineering. He is training as a flight engineer as a member of the Expedition 39 crew, a six-month mission with a planned November 2013 take-off. This is his fourth NASA Space Shuttle mission.
Wiseman is a former Naval commander, aviator, and test pilot who is training to fly a sixmonth mission as part of the Expedition 40/41 crew. The flight is tentatively scheduled for May through November 2014. Wiseman graduated from Rensselaer in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in computer and systems engineering. This is his first space flight. The men join the short list of Rensselaer alumni—four in all—who traveled into space.