Golden Eagle soaring as pilot of NASA shuttle Atlantis
Former Tech linebacker Barry Wilmore is soaring higher than any other Golden Eagle has ever flown, as the one-time walk-on and member of the TTU Sports Hall of Fame is currently in space as pilot of the shuttle Atlantis.
Watch video of the Atlantis launch
See Barry Wilmore talk about the determination he
learned playing football
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- One of the characteristics that Barry Wilmore
learned while playing football was "determination" which has also
served him well on his way to becoming the current pilot of NASA's
Space Shuttle Atlantis, which lifted off Monday.
A former walk-on member of the GOlden Eagle football team, Wilmore
became a starter and eventually was inducted into the TTU Sports
Hall of Fame. In describing himself as a football player, Wilmore
says he was, "small and slow and weak, but I had determination."
The current mission, STS-129, is taking spare parts to the
International Space Station. The parts delivered to the space
station during the mission will mean spare years on the
station’s life once the space shuttle fleet is retired.
With only one U.S. module left to deliver, the Space Shuttle
Program is turning its attention to helping the space station build
up a store of replacement parts. There are only half a dozen
flights left in the shuttle’s manifest before they stop
flying, and as the only vehicle large enough to carry many of the
big pieces of equipment into space, several of the flights are
devoted to the task. This is the first, however, and as the first
this mission is dedicated to taking up the spares of the highest
priority.
The 11-day mission has Atlantis scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center on Friday, Nov. 27, at 9:43 a.m. EST.
