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Higginbotham shares space stories at SIUC

BY SCOTT FITZGERALD

Friday, October 5, 2007 10:31 PM CDT

THE SOUTHERN

CARBONDALE - This year's star Southern Illinois University Carbondale homecoming alumna Joan E. Higginbotham is far from done with her career as a NASA astronaut.

In fact, the 1987 Saluki graduate could be just beginning her jaunts into space.

Higginbotham talked briefly Thursday in SIU Arena after narrating a video shot by NASA of the December STS 116 space flight on the Challenger that included Higginbotham as a flight member. She discussed about her recent selection as a flight member on STS-126 set to launch in September 2008.

"I've known for about three weeks. I'll be with a new crew of people," Higginbotham said, noting later in her speech that she will be operating the shuttle's robotic arm, which she did during the December flight.

During a question-answer session after Higginbotham's talk, the Chicago native said she will not be doing a space walk, but hopes to in the future.

Director Mike Lawrence of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, which hosted the speech, thanked Higginbotham for her "candor" and "straightforwardness" afterwards.

She certainly was candid when describing how she was selected to work for NASA shortly after finishing her undergraduate degree in engineering at SIU.

Telling the audience she was expecting to take a job with IBM, she received a telephone call in her dorm room from NASA.

Later during a media session, Higginbotham said someone from the College of Engineering had sent her resume to the space agency and she went to visit.

"I was not a space buff. It looked like something out of Star Wars," she said of her visit to the NASA complex.

But after successfully undertaking and doing a good job on the technical jobs she was assigned, an engineering director she worked for said she would make a good astronaut.

"Everything was kind of a fluke. I applied to get him (engineering director) off my back," Higginbotham said.

In answering their questions, Higginbotham told many young people that studying diligently and doing good work in school ensure successful career opportunities.

scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com

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