Kevin Ford, class of 1982, is one of three Notre Dame alumni who have traveled in space. The first was Jim Wetherbee, Notre Dame class of 1974, who logged six space missions and was the first American to command five of them. He retired from the astronaut corps in 2005. Next came Michael Good, who received a ND bachelor's degree in 1984 and a master of science degree in 1986. Good was aboard the final space shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope last May and logged just under 16 hours of spacewalks. He is scheduled to fly on one of the last six remaining shuttle missions this spring. Both men, like Ford, were military pilots before becoming astronauts.
Several alumni are working, or have worked, in NASA’s human space flight program. One is Michael Hawes, ND class of 1978, NASA’s associate administrator for program analysis and evaluation. He’s one of three Domer administrators based at NASA’s Washington headquarters; the others are Andy Petro, ND class of 1978 and Dave Schurr, class of 1983.
Nine Domers work for NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and three more are based at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.