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A semester in life of spaceflight operations

My favorite class in my undergrad at A&M has been Dr. Greg Chamitoff’s human Spaceflight operations course. Not only is Dr. Chamitoff a former NASA astronaut, he has successfully maintained his connections in Spaceflight to provide an exhilarating class for all space enthusiasts.

You are here: Home / Academic activities / A semester in life of spaceflight operations

November 2, 2022 By: Leah Davis

Want to learn about space?

Take a look at all of the opportunities and exciting things happening in our Aerospace Engineering program!

Department of Aerospace Engineering
Student, Leah Davis, sitting in front of flight operations computers and tvs

My favorite class in my undergrad at A&M has been Dr. Greg Chamitoff’s human Spaceflight operations course. Not only is Dr. Chamitoff a former NASA astronaut, he has successfully maintained his connections in Spaceflight to provide an exhilarating class for all space enthusiasts.

We heard from a launch pad expert at Kennedy Space Center who told us why the Shuttle vehicle was so unique in landing and taking off from the same place. Then a safety engineer reiterated how important our jobs are and how grave accidents resonate through the workplace.

Student, Leah Davis, in front of one of the NASA test diving pools

Next we learned how the Canadian arm on the space station operates to grab vehicles for berthing and move astronauts during spacewalks, even simulating one of our own. Then we learned how to talk like flight controllers from a flight director soon to be directing the Artemis missions back to the moon. We learned the details of how we even talk to space through GPS signals and satellites. Then we went on to get our first “space flying” lesson in orbital mechanics. Of course once you get to space you have to survive so we had an expert from Johnson Space Center come in and inform us of the environmental factors from spacesuits to the space station. Then we heard from a scheduling expert that has to calculate all the necessary events (like 2 hours of exercise per crew member) and account for changes on the fly!

Then Dr. Chamitoff detailed his own experiences in covering extravehicular activities. He told us some of his funny stories on orbit, including losing a chess game to elementary students. He explained how exciting launches were and what to expect when you fly in space for months.

This class is typically offered to aerospace seniors and graduate students in spring semesters, as Dr. Chamitoff is available. 

Leah Davis

About Leah Davis

Aerospace Engineering, Class of 2021

I am from Dallas, Texas, study aerospace engineering and hope to work at NASA full-time after graduation.

If you found this blog post interesting, you may consider reading “4 Summer School Hacks” and “Engineering & Studying.”

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