Astronaut visits campus

By Virginia You
Staff Writer

Astronaut Janice Voss had a busy day Thursday. Her final mission was dinner and a speech with a video at Earhart Hall.

Dinner consisted of Voss opening up to Women in Engineering and discussing topics such as her love for volleyball and dancing. The women found out that Voss has a pilot license and flies small planes an hour a week. She said it satisfies her flying itch.

This year Voss went on her fifth mission, which made her one of the most flown women along with Shannon Lucid, Tammy Jernigan and Bonnie Dunbar.

Allison Lambeth, a senior in the schools of Engineering and Science, introduced Voss, telling some "fun facts," such as Voss obtaining her nickname JV because a co-worker had a similar name.

Voss is working on robotic arms at NASA, where she enjoys her occupation.

"Working at NASA is very fun because everybody is really excited about what they're doing," said Voss.

Their training program prepared Voss for her missions. Voss said her first mission did not seem a first because of the training.

Autographs, on the other hand, were not something NASA had trained Voss for.

"Within a week of the press release, some people got my address somehow and I got my first request for an autograph," said Voss. "They mailed it in an envelope and it said to please sign. I wondered what to sign and where to sign. But you get used to it like anything else."

While at Purdue on co-op during 1972 to 1975, Voss listened to an astronaut speech.

"Listening to an astronaut and being able to talk to people in the space program was really helpful for me," said Voss. "It helped me not to focus on details, but the big picture of life (concerning a career)."

The video, which showed clips from Voss' 1997 mission as Voss discussed the video scenes, showed the flight's missions. One of the goals was to examine how proteins grow in space in order to form theories on how and why they grow.

Voss also told of how the astronauts' experiences with sleeping without gravity and playing with a hand radio, saying to random people, "Hi, we're in space, how are you?"

In the closing question-and-answer session, Voss gave advice about what to do in a major. Voss advised the women to do what they liked because it would make studies easier and fun.

Students were not the only ones interested in Voss' speech. Children and faculty also attended.

Jessica Oakes, 10, daughter of Bill Oakes, assistant professor of freshman engineering and faculty fellow member at Earhart, said she wants to be an astronaut because she thinks it would be fun and she enjoyed hearing the talk on space.

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