ByGeorge!

April 19, 2005

Camarda to Serve
as GW Standard Bearer in Space

School of Engineering Alumnus and NASA Astronaut to Carry GW Banner On Shuttle Mission

By Julia Jacobelli

The George Washington University banner will be raised to new heights, thanks to School of Engineering and Applied Science alumnus Charles Camarda, a member of NASA’s “Return to Space” mission, the first manned flight since the Columbia tragedy.

The GW banner will be stowed in a special compartment during the mission, so it will not be photographed in space. Following completion of the mission, the banner will be framed and presented to GW and will later be displayed in the Alumni House with a plaque indicating its history. Camarda will visit campus in the fall, when he plans to participate in a career-lecture series, in a talk entitled “How do I Become an Astronaut?”

“Can anything top this? I doubt it,” said Joe Bondi, director of alumni constituency initiatives at GW. “This is probably the coolest thing that will happen to a little piece of GW. In the grand scheme of things, only a couple dozen people in all time have been to space, and at least one of them will have a GW banner with him.”

Camarda, who attended GW off campus while working as a research engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center, said his experience at GW, working with well-known researchers like Ahmed Noor, his master’s advisor, helped him understand and develop new technologies.

“We were very fortunate to have such a cooperative academic arrangement with GW because it allowed us to learn from both GW professors and very talented research engineers at NASA,” said Camarda.

The “Return to Space” mission primarily will be an experimental mission to evaluate some of the technology developed after the Columbia tragedy, to ensure the safety of future missions. Cameras and radar on the ground will be used to detect and locate any debris that may have been released during the launch. There also will be cameras on the External Tank (ET), which will be used to view ET foam and any possible areas of foam loss. High altitude aircraft with cameras also will check for debris. Wing leading edge sensors will be used to ensure none of the wing edges were impacted by debris, and if so, whether the damage was enough to cause significant problems.

Camarda’s primary job will take place on the second day of the flight, where he will take the shuttle robotic arm and inspect both wing leading edges and the nosecap for damages. The belly of the orbiter also will be inspected during a rendezvous with the International Space Station. While docked at the station, the crew will be transferring supplies to the crew members. They also will be conducting three space walks to evaluate methods of repairing the leading edges and tiles, replace a failed control moment gyroscope, and attach an external stowage platform to the station airlock.

According to Bondi, GW has more than 220,000 alumni around the world, including Senators, Representatives, inventors, doctors, Nobel Prize winners, actors, architects, firemen, as well as astronauts.

“There are pieces of GW throughout this world. And now there will be a piece of GW out of this world: a banner carried by an alumnus who has worked his whole life for this one moment,” said Bondi. “What are the implications? We couldn’t be more proud. Charlie Camarda represents our unending march from strength to strength, from a great institution to an excellent one.”


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