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The Final Frontier
Created: 4/28/2003 7:38:37 AM
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In September 2001, we posted this feature written by Barbara O'Neil Mingle. It is about former Cornell wrestler Ed Lu, who is now in space on a Russian Soyuz rocket. The flight, the first carrying a U.S. astronaut since the Columbia shuttle disaster three months ago, blasted off on Saturday. Lu, 39, and Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko, 41, are on a two-day journey toward the International Space Station.
If astronauts were awarded frequent flyer miles for space flights, Ed Lu (Cornell, 1984) could spend the rest of his days traveling the globe gratis. Now with two space missions under his belt, the Cornell College of Engineering alumnus and former Big Red wrestler, has logged 8.5 million miles in space.
In his most recent 12-day mission in September 2000, Lu, one of the shuttle Atlantis's seven-member crew including five U.S. astronauts and two Russian cosmonauts, completed preparations for the International Space Station's first permanent occupants, now in residence. In addition to delivering more than 6,000 pounds of supplies, the crew installed batteries, power converters, life support and exercise equipment.
During his first spacewalk, Lu, the lead astronaut for space shuttle training issues when he isn't in flight training himself, partnered with Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko for a six hour and 14 minute spacewalk. The pair linked power and communication cables between two Russian modules and installed an external navigational device.
The spacewalkers mixed and matched procedures developed by the once-rival U.S. and Russian space programs in determining the protocol for their assignment. Whereas the three previous joint spacewalks originated from Russian's Mir space station and featured Russian suits and language; this time both spacewalkers donned NASA spacesuits, emerged from the shuttle's airlock and conversed in English. Employing the Russian safety protocol of securing themselves to the station with a pair of safety tethers, they moved like rock climbers, unfastening and refastening one, then the other, of the tethers to attachment hardware on the outside of the station. They lugged bulky cables and hand tools as they made their 110-feet ascent to almost the top of the 143-foot long space station. They had to move carefully as they climbed over, under and around communications antennas and radiator panels jutting from the station's hull.
Was it arduous? You bet. "We wear pressurized suits. Anything that's inflated is hard to bend. What we did was the equivalent of weightlifting for six hours," explains Lu.
Lu is scheduled to return to the space station in a year or so for a long-duration visit of possibly four to six months. He will partner once again with Malenchenko, whom he describes as "a good guy." In the meantime he is studying Russian and spends half his time training in Russia.
Astronauts on a space mission work on a tight schedule, so there is little time for earth-gazing, says Lu. However during his spacewalk-- or rather space climb-- he did have the opportunity to observe an enormous thunderstorm over the Amazon.
"I was instructed to take a photo of a electrical connection I had just made. The lamp on my helmet didn't provide sufficient light, so I was told to wait because the sun would be coming up in three minutes, giving me light for the picture. (Since we traveled around the globe every 90 minutes, we saw a sunset or surise every 45 minutes.) For several minutes I watched this amazing storm, with tremendous amounts of lightning flashing through the clouds."
A Merrill Presidential Scholar at Cornell, Lu studied applied physics at Stanford, earning his Ph.D in 1989. For the next six years he was an astrophysicist, focusing on solar physics. His research led to a number of theoretical advances in the understanding of the underlying physics of solar flares.
In March 1995, he began astronaut training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Lu, a graduate of R.L. Thomas High School in Webster, N.Y., is Cornell's second electrical engineering graduate to fly in space. Daniel T. Barry (B.S. 1975) who flew aboard the shuttle Endeavor in January 1996 was the first. Four other Cornellians have also flown in space, two as astronauts and two as payload specialists.
In May 1997, when Lu traveled aboard Atlantis on NASA's sixth Shuttle mission to rendezvous with Mir, he took a Cornell wrestling singlet with him. He follows the fortunes of Big Red wrestling on the Cornell athletics website.
Former Big Red wrestling coach and current Director of Athletics Andy Noel coached Ed Lu for four years. "He was an incredibly hardworking young athlete, who gave 100 percent effort every day," says Noel. "I was always proud of his attitude and effort."
Though he could not have foreseen Lu one day becoming an astronaut, Noel does recall a conversation that hinted at Lu's interest in space travel. "Ed was a brilliant student and hung out with superstar student Derrick Harmon '84 of Cornell football fame. I remember interrupting a conversation Ed and Derrick were having at Plums Restaurant downtown.
"They were discussing the concept of the aging process slowing as a function of speed. As one approaches the speed of light, one does not age. I asked many questions and enjoyed my sincere but futile attempt to follow their thought process."
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Related Schools: Cornell
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Related Sports: Wrestling
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*This Article has been archived.*
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