Carthage native and outstanding Missouri University of Science and Technology graduate discusses space exploration.
Three NASA astronauts -- all graduates of Missouri University of Science and Technology and veterans of the space shuttle program -- discussed their careers and the future of space exploration during an event on the Missouri S&T campus.
The free event, titled "The Moon, Mars and Beyond: A Discussion With Three Astronauts," featured astronauts Col. Tom Akers, Dr. Janet Kavandi and Dr. Sandra Magnus.
Kavandi earned a master's degree in chemistry from Missouri S&T in 1982. A native of Carthage, Mo., she also holds a bachelor's degree from Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. In 1990, Kavandi earned her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Washington-Seattle. Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in December 1994, she has flown on three shuttle missions. Her first shuttle flight, in June 1998, was the final space shuttle docking mission with the Russian space station Mir.
In February 2000, on her second mission, Kavandi served aboard the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which mapped more than 47 million miles of the Earth's land surface. She currently serves as director of flight crew operations for the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Reviewed 2013-02-18