Norwich University continues its spring Todd Lecture Series with “Report from the International Space Station,’’ a presentation by a decorated NASA Astronaut Michael E. Fossum onThursday February 26, 2015 at 7 p.m. in Plumley Armory.
A veteran of three space flights, Fossum has logged seven space walks and over 193 days in space aboard the Space Shuttle and International Space Station.
Fossum will discuss his work aboard the orbiting national laboratory during his lecture, which is sponsored by Norwich University’s College of Science and Mathematics. A Q&A will follow the presentation.
Fossum received his commission in the U.S. Air Force at Texas A&M University in 1980. He completed graduate work at the Air Force Institute of Technology the following year before the Air Force assigned him to support NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. In 1985, he graduated from test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and served as a Flight Test Engineer in the F-16 Test Squadron. Fossum resigned from active duty in 1992 to work for NASA and retired as a Colonel from the USAF Reserves in 2010. He has logged more than 1,800 hours in 35 different aircraft.
In 1993, he joined NASA as a systems engineer with primary responsibilities to evaluate the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for use as a space station emergency escape vehicle. Later in 1993, Fossum was selected to represent NASA’s Flight Crew Operations Directorate in an extensive redesign of the International Space Station (ISS).
He was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in 1998. After eight years of intensive training, he made his first space flight, traveling aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on a 13-day mission in July 2006 to supply the International Space Station. During that mission, Fossum made three space walks, called extravehicular activities (EVAs).
Fossum flew aboard Discovery again in 2008 with the STS-124 crew that delivered Japan’s Kibo lab module to the ISS. He returned to space in 2011 as part of Expedition 28 and served as commander of the ISS. His final EVA during this mission was the seventh in his career for a total of 48 hours, 32 minutes of EVA time, placing him seventh on the all-time list for cumulative EVA time.
Norwich University’s Todd Lecture Series is named in honor of Army Maj. Gen. Russell Todd (USA Ret.) and his wife, Carol, in gratitude for their dedicated service to the university. Todd ’50, serves as Norwich President Emeritus. With this series, Norwich brings the nation’s foremost thought leaders drawn from business, politics, the arts, science, the military and other arenas to its Northfield campus. All events are free and open to the public.