'Astro Mike' Returns to Campus to Inspire a New Generation to Explore Space

When astronauts go on a mission, they are allowed to take one or two personal items with them. On his first space flight in 2002, Michael Massimino (Columbia Engineering 1984) took a Columbia Engineering school flag. The second time, in 2009, he took a gray Columbia Engineering T-shirt covered with the signatures of as many engineering school students and faculty as could fit on it.

00:00 - What made him want to become an astronaut
01:06 - Seeing "The Right Stuff", affirming his astronaut ambition
02:45 - Coming from NASA to Columbia to teach, Introduction to Human space flight
03:50 - Details about his course curriculum and research collaborations
05:17 - How the movies have recreated their spaceship, almost exactly the same
06:01 - Spacewalks
06:25 - First space flight and the emphasis on safety
07:24 - How astronauts get picked