Intrepid Museum
Virtual Astronomy Live
Astronauts Garrett Reisman and Mike Massimino Discuss First Crewed Launch from U.S. Soil in Nearly a Decade; Historic First for SpaceX
PAST EVENT
Thursday, May 21
3:30PM to 5:00PM ET
The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum will present a Virtual Astronomy Live program on Thursday, May 21 from 3:30PM to 5:00PM ET, a free event with astronauts Garrett Reisman and Mike Massimino previewing the upcoming launch of Demo-2, the first crewed launch with NASA astronauts from U.S. soil since 2011.
The Demo-2 mission will represent a major breakthrough for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has launched spacecraft, satellites and cargo into space, but never astronauts. Demo-2 is set to liftoff for the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 4:32 p.m. ET on May 27.
The launch, with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, will mark the first time a rocket will carry astronauts into orbit from the United States since NASA's Space Shuttle program was retired almost a decade ago.
The event is hosted and co-produced by John “Das” Galloway, founder of the Kerbal Space Academy, and moderated by Summer Ash, an astrophysicist, rocket scientist and freelance writer.
Participants
Garrett Reisman
Dr. Garrett Reisman, a NASA veteran who flew on all three Space Shuttles, was selected by NASA as a mission specialist astronaut in 1998. During these missions, Reisman performed three spacewalks, operated the Space Station Robot Arm and was a flight engineer aboard the Space Shuttle. Not only was he an astronaut, but Reisman was also an aquanaut serving as a crewmember on NEEMO V, living on the bottom of the sea in the Aquarius deep underwater habitat for 2 weeks. After leaving NASA in early 2011, he joined Elon Musk at SpaceX, where he served in multiple capacities most recently as the director of space operations. Reisman stepped down from his full-time position at SpaceX in May of 2018 and in June 2018 he became a professor of astronautical engineering in the Viterbi School at USC. He also continues to support SpaceX as a senior advisor.
Mike Massimino
Mike Massimino is a former NASA astronaut, and currently a professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University in New York City. He has flown in space twice, each time making two spacewalks on repair and servicing missions of the Hubble Space Telescope. Massimino appeared as himself on five episodes of the hit show, The Big Bang Theory. His autobiography Spaceman was recently adapted and released for young readers. Massimino is the senior advisor of space programs at the Intrepid Museum.
Summer Ash
Moderator
Summer Ash has been both a rocket scientist and an astrophysicist. She is a freelance science writer and communicator whose work has been published in The Atlantic, NBC News, Smithsonian, Now.Space, Scientific American, Slate, and Nautilus.
John “Das”Galloway
Host and Producer
“Das” is a science outreach communicator who specializes in live, interactive video content. He is the creator of the Kerbal Space Academy, where he uses video games as a tool to start science and engineering conversations with viewers of all ages, and VECTORS Virtual Field Trips, which brings real-time interactive video to museums, events, and historical locations. “Das” also serves as a host and producer for NASASpaceflight.com.
This event is produced by Intrepid Museum in partnership with Kerbal Space Academy and Egress Productions, LLC.
The Intrepid Museum’s Astronomy Nights are generously supported by New York Space Grant Consortium.