For more information about Dr. Fabian's visit, please contact Cheryl Scott at 335-4772 or cheryl_scott@wsu.edu or Tina Hilding at 335-5095 or thilding@wsu.edu
Astronaut John Fabian and Cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov To Lecture at WSU
PULLMAN, Wash. — Retired Astronaut and WSU graduate, John Fabian, and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov will visit the Washington State University campus as part of a community day of the annual congress of The Association of Space Explorers.
After visiting with science and engineering classes on campus, Fabian and Vinogradov will give a free, public presentation at 4 p.m. on Sept. 17 in Todd Auditorium. They will also meet with NASA scholarship and fellowship recipients and researchers supported by NASA at the University of Idaho and WSU.
The congress, which is being held in the U.S. (Seattle) for only the 3rd time since 1985, is focused this year on “Exploring Space, Inspiring Planetary Stewardship.’’ The association is a non-profit educational organization that includes about 300 astronauts and cosmonauts from around the world.
Fabian, who grew up in Pullman, received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from WSU in 1962. He went on to study aerospace engineering and aeronautics, first at the Air Force Institute of Technology and then at the University of Washington, where he received a doctorate in 1974. He served as a mission specialist on two NASA missions, logging more than 300 hours in space on the space shuttle Challenger in 1983 and Discovery in 1985. He retired from the Air Force in 1987 and joined Analytic Services, Inc., a non-profit research institute, where he served as president and chief executive officer. He retired in 1998. He has received the WSU Regent’s Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest award granted to WSU alumni, in 1983 and later served as a WSU Regent from 2004-2005.
Vinogradov has logged more than 380 days in space. He was flight engineer on the Soyuz TM-26 and lived on the MIR space station for 197 days from August 1997 to February, 1998. He later served as crew commander aboard the Soyuz TMA-8 in 2006 and spent six months on the International Space Station. He is a 1977 graduate of the Moscow Aviation Institute.
The event is sponsored by the College of Engineering and Architecture, the College of Sciences, and the Science, Math, and Engineering Education Center. The event is free and open to the public.