Houston astronaut Shannon Walker joins space station conversation with local, international students
HOUSTON – (April 7, 2021) – NASA has announced that Rice alumna Shannon Walker, the only Houston-born astronaut to fly in space, will join Thursday’s live International Space Station conversation with students from eight Houston-area schools.
Walker and fellow crewmember Kate Rubins will give real-time answers to prerecorded questions during the event that begins at 8 a.m. CDT. The NASA downlink, which will be broadcast on NASA-TV and its associated app at 9:15 a.m. CDT, will be the centerpiece of a two-hour cross-cultural event for students from Houston, Ecuador and Scotland organized by the Rice Space Institute.
Walker is serving her second mission aboard the station. She launched as part of Crew-1 aboard the Space-X Crew Dragon last November. She was previously part of ISS Expedition 24/25 in 2010.
Houston-area schools taking part are DeBakey and Seven Lakes high schools; Ryan and Rusk middle schools; Lovett, Lemm and Buffalo Creek elementary schools; and CPD Aerospace Academy.
The event will also feature contributions from astronauts Serena Auňón-Chancellor, who has also served aboard the ISS and will answer more student questions, and Bonnie Dunbar, a veteran of five space shuttle missions.
The public is invited to tune in to the event via Zoom. Registration is required at https://event.webinarjam.com/register/70/5o8nkanx.
“I hope that this unique opportunity will excite students: not only about space exploration and the impact of science and engineering but also about the power of cross-cultural collaboration and how together they can make a difference in the world,” said David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute and a Rice University professor of physics and astronomy.
WHAT: “Let’s Talk Space — Beaming Schools from Scotland, Houston and Ecuador Onto the Space Station,” including a downlink Q-and-A through NASA’s STEM on Station initiative.
WHO: Astronauts Kate Rubins and Shannon Walker, with students from Houston, Ecuador and Scotland.
WHEN: Thursday, April 8, from 8 to 10 a.m. Central time. The 20-minute downlink will also be broadcast on NASA-TV beginning at 9:15 a.m. Central.
Read more about the event at http://news.rice.edu/2021/03/29/ultimate-field-trip-will-be-out-of-this-world/.
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Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,978 undergraduates and 3,192 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.