Interview: Mike Massimino

Lofty Ambitions interviewed Astronaut Mike Massimino at Kennedy Space Center on July 8, 2011, shortly before the last-ever launch of a space shuttle. We had seen him via Skype after the showing of An Article Hope at Chapman University last year, when he joined our first-ever guest blogger Chris Cowen for a Q & A session. We knew he’d be a jovial interview, but we had no idea how amiable this guy really is. And popular—everybody says hello to this guy, so his handler really had to watch the clock.

Mike Massimino flew twice on the space shuttle, on the fourth and fifth (final) Hubble Telescope servicing missions. Others in his astronaut class, nicknamed “The Sardines,” include some astronauts about whom we’ve written at Lofty Ambitions, namely Mike Fincke (STS-134) and Sandy Magnus (STS-135). We do like the quirky characters!

He’s a native New Yorker and an MIT Ph.D. “Mass” is the first person to send a tweet from space and the first astronaut to have a million Twitter followers. You can follow him @Astro_Mike.

 

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