Astronaut Shannon Walker ’87 returned to space Sunday night when NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 Mission launched to the International Space Station from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 6:27 p.m. Central time.
Walker's residential college, Baker, gathered to watch the launch. Baker College Magister Luis Duno-Gottberg hosted about 20 undergraduate students in his backyard.
Walker, who spent six months aboard the space station in 2010, is the first native Houstonian astronaut and the only NASA astronaut to earn three degrees from Rice.