[Sci-tech-public] FW: Talk by Astronaut Mike Massimino on Oct. 28

[Michelle Baildon]

The MIT Libraries are hosting an event on Wednesday that might be of
interest to some of you.

 

Michelle Baildon
History, History of Science & Technology, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Librarian
MIT Humanities Library
Room 14S-222
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel. 617-253-9352 

 

 

Astronaut Mike Massimino at MIT

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

Talk 4-5pm

Killian Hall, Building 14

 

Veteran Astronaut and MIT Alumnus Dr. Mike Massimino (SM TPP 1988, Engineer
ME 1990, PhD 1992) will come to MIT on Wednesday Oct. 28 to talk about his
recent work servicing NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and to return a book to
the MIT Libraries.

 

In May 2009 Massimino and six other astronauts boarded the space shuttle
Atlantis for a journey that took them 5.3 million miles for a final
servicing of the telescope.  Massimino and other STS-125 crewmembers
conducted five spacewalks to upgrade the Hubble, enabling it to send back
spectacular images of the universe well into the next decade.  While on the
mission the crew captured photographs and video, and Massimino became the
first astronaut to 'Tweet' from space-sending back updates on the mission
through his Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/astro_mike), which has
surpassed 1 million followers.

 

Accompanying Massimino on the mission was a rare book loaned from the MIT
Libraries' collections.  The book, a limited edition facsimile of Galileo's
landmark publication Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger), was chosen to
coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo's astronomical research, the
first recorded planetary observations using a telescope.

 

In his talk, Massimino will discuss his work and show images and video from
the mission.  He will also present the well-traveled book back to the MIT
Community and the Libraries.

 

This event is sponsored by the MIT Libraries, the Technology and Policy
Program (TPP)/ Engineering Systems Division (ESD), and Dept. of Aeronautics
and Astronautics.

 

 

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