Talk by NASA astronauts canceled

Victor Glover
Victor Glover
Michael Hopkins
Michael Hopkins

UPDATE 04/19/22: EVENT CANCELLED. Due to unforeseen circumstances and mission priorities at NASA, the astronauts will not be able to travel to Santa Cruz next week. The planned events on campus have been postponed indefinitely.

NASA astronauts Michael S. Hopkins (Colonel, U.S. Space Force) and Victor J. Glover, Jr. (Captain, U.S. Navy) will visit UC Santa Cruz in May for a series of events with students, including a public talk.

The presentation by Hopkins and Glover—“Taking flight together: The role of teamwork on the International Space Station”—will take place at the Stevenson Event Center on the UCSC campus on Thursday, May 26, at 10 a.m. The event is free and open to the entire student body and the public. Advance registration is required to attend. To register and to submit questions for the astronauts, visit goslugs.com/Astroslugs.

Hopkins and Glover both served on the first post-certification mission (Crew-1) of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft—Hopkins as commander and Glover as pilot and second-in-command—on a long-duration mission (Expedition 64) to the International Space Station (ISS). They spent a total of 168 days in space and participated in multiple spacewalks (four by Glover and five by Hopkins). Crew-1 broke the U.S. crewed spacecraft mission duration record set by the final Skylab crew in 1974, returning on May 2, 2021, in the first nighttime splashdown for NASA astronauts since Apollo 8 in 1968.

During their visit to UC Santa Cruz, the astronauts will engage with students in several groups, including discussions with student athletes and with students in astronomy, physics, and other STEM disciplines, as well as a conversation with faculty, staff, and students about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the STEM disciplines and the NASA space program.

The astronauts were invited to UCSC by Dino Pollock, senior associate director of athletics, and J. Xavier Prochaska, professor of astronomy and astrophysics and the faculty athletics representative. Pollock and Hopkins were football teammates at the University of Illinois, and Prochaska and Glover were also student athletes.

“We designed the visit to explore the value and intersectionality of the STEM disciplines, intercollegiate athletics, and issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Pollock said.

The lead sponsors of the events are the UCSC Department of Athletics and Recreation and the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, in collaboration with the Baskin School of Engineering, Ethnic Resource Centers, and the Chancellor’s Office.

For more information about these events, visit the AstroSlugs web site.