Queen’s University Alumnus to Command International Space Station

Published on: 2017/01/05 - in Featured News

NASA has announced today that Andrew Feustel (PhD’95) will be returning to space for the third time in 2018.

The Veteran NASA astronaut will join the International Space Station in March of next year serving as flight engineer on Expedition 55. A few month later, Feustel will take command of the station’s Expedition 56.

In the latter expedition, he will be joined by first-time flyer, Jeanette Epps.

NASA announced her launch to the station’s Expedition 56 s flight engineer today as well. She will make spaceflight history as the first African-American crewmember of an International Space Station expedition. Epps will remain on the station for Expedition 57.

“Each space station crew brings something different to the table, and Drew and Jeanette both have a lot to offer,” said Chris Cassidy, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The space station will benefit from having them on board.”

Prior to this space journey, Feustel was part of STS-125. As a Mission Specialist, he performed three spacewalks to repair the Hubble Space Telescope on May 11, 2009.

In May 2011, he was a Mission Specialist on the 25th and last spaceflight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. The flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station.

Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Andrew Feustel received an AS degree from Oakland Community College in 1985. He then attended Purdue University, where he received both a BS degree in Solid Earth Sciences and a MS degree in Geophysics. Feustel then moved to Kingston to attend Queen’s University and received his PhD in Geological Sciences.

In 2015, he was presented with the Alumni Achievement Award – the highest honour bestowed by the Queen’s University Alumni Association.

Another former Kingstonian, RMC grad Chris Hadfield, commanded the International Space Station in 2013.


Photo: NASA