At her Florida home, a young Jamie Magnus would watch the space-shuttle launch on TV, then run outside to the driveway and cast her eyes skyward.
On a good day, she’d catch a glimpse of the craft before it disappeared from view, carrying her ever-expanding dream of spaceflight.
Now a 24-year-old graduate of the University of Colorado — an aerospace pipeline that has sent 16 NASA astronauts on 40 shuttle missions — she tracks the ship for the last time.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” says Magnus, an engineer at Sierra Nevada Corp. in Louisville. “It’s sad to think about it ending, but at the same time, I’m very optimistic. I don’t think it’s the end of humans in space.”
For the current and recent crop of CU students whose lives and careers have followed the arc of the shuttle program, the final flight of Atlantis triggers nostalgia. But even as the ranks of NASA’s astronaut corps diminish, they remain upbeat about fulfilling their aspirations.
“With the shuttle going out, that opens up the private space industry,” says Chris Nie, 20, a junior in aerospace engineering. “There may be a decline in the number of astronauts in this transitional phase, but eventually there will be an increase in travel to space.”
Former astronaut Jim Voss, who took five flights into space, now focuses his expertise on Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser, a reusable space plane that eventually could carry seven passengers into orbit.
He also is a scholar in residence at CU, where he teaches the popular “Introduction to Human Space Flight” class. In that class, he touches on the process of becoming an astronaut — and more recently, on the impact of the end of the shuttle era on those prospects.
“The thing I tell them to encourage them is that they wouldn’t be eligible for another 10 years,” Voss says. “It’ll be back going full speed by the time they have the experience to apply.”
With the average age of a NASA astronaut hovering around 34, those currently in CU’s aerospace-engineering program are years away from consideration.
It’s the older applicants — those who have perhaps returned for their doctorate and moved back into the workforce while awaiting their shot — who could find their opportunity evaporating, says David Klaus, an associate professor in the school’s Aerospace Engineering Sciences program.
“Finite window of time”
“I have a lot of students who come through here who have aspirations of flying in space,” Klaus says. “For the ones who are really close to it, there’s a finite window of time where you’ve accrued enough experience and you’re still reasonably young and fit. For them, I think their dreams are temporarily dashed.”
At 37, Vanessa Aponte fits that astro-demographic.
She arrived at CU in 2001 to earn her doctorate in aerospace engineering. Along the way, she interned at the John son Space Center in Houston, where she rubbed elbows with the likes of Gene Kranz, the former NASA flight director who played a key role in salvaging the Apollo 13 mission.
Aponte’s ambition to become an astronaut became entwined with the ongoing shuttle program.
“That’s what my dreams looked like for so many years,” she says.
In the meantime, she has worked at Lockheed Martin Corp., helping to design an environmental cooling system for the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, formerly known as the Orion space capsule.
Her experience there helped her land an interview with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, where she was a finalist in the last astronaut-selection cycle in 2009.
“It was a great experience,” Aponte says. “At the same time, I was told that there’s a new reality. I guess if we’d thought about it, we knew the shuttle was getting old. But a lot of us were dreaming we’d make it in time to catch a few shuttle rides.”
In the near term, U.S. astronauts could be hitching rides on the Russian Soyuz craft — a rougher ride that would demand more rigorous physical conditioning, she says.
But Aponte figures that technological advances in spacecraft currently in development could expand her prime years as long as she keeps up to speed and stays in shape. Some of her peers, she adds, won’t be willing to wait for that right moment to arrive.
Commercial flight may be the more realistic option.
“I think during my lifetime I’ll go to space,” Aponte says. “It could mean taking out another mortgage because it might not be very affordable.”
Youthful exuberance still grips Mike Lotto, who just turned 20 and counts a shuttle launch as one of his most captivating memories.
Now, as a junior at CU about to begin an internlike program at the Houston space center, his sadness at the shuttle’s last flight mingles with excitement about what lies ahead for NASA — and for his own future as an astronaut.
“I’m just trying to do what I love and hope it works out,” Lotto says. “One of the defining things they look for in an astronaut is perseverance.”
Joe Tanner flew on four shuttle missions and walked in space seven times before becoming a senior instructor in CU’s Aerospace Engineering Sciences department. The rocket fuel for his dream came from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects in his youth.
“Students I teach now were excited by the shuttle program and the space-station program they grew up with,” he says. “The main reason to have that space exploration, and any aggressive science program, is to excite young people to do great things in science and technology.”
Encouraging words
So when they ask him why the program is ending and what it all means for aspiring astronauts, he laces his response with encouragement: Don’t give up on your dreams. If that’s what you want, prepare yourself for it.
“I want to encourage them to reach for those goals they set for themselves — and don’t give up because of the political whim of the day,” Tanner says.
Magnus, years removed from watching on her driveway as the space shuttle rocketed into orbit, keeps her aspirations alive at her job with Sierra Nevada, where she contributes to work on development of commercial spacecraft.
“I already feel like I’m living the dream in the job I have,” Magnus says.
Voss notes that the venture’s success, and the expansion of commercial spaceflight, could greatly expand the pool of participants beyond NASA’s chosen few.
“It’s such a wonderful experience to fly in space, and I got to do it a bunch of times,” he says. “I’d like others to get that experience.”
Kevin Simpson: 303-954-1739 or ksimpson@denverpost.com
