The Red and Blue are about to blast off into the infinite blackness of outer space. Garrett Reisman, a 1991 graduate of the Management and Technology program, was chosen last week by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a member of this year's astronaut candidate class. He will begin 1 1/2 years of training and evaluation at the Johnson Space Center in Houston in late August. Only 100 of the 2,600 applicants for this year's candidate class were even granted interviews for the elite 25-member group. "It was sort of a long shot -- no pun intended," Reisman said of his chances for acceptance into the competitive program. After training, Reisman and his 24 classmates will receive technical assignments within the Astronaut Office before actually voyaging beyond the earth's atmosphere. He said that he could be in line for a mission within three or four years. After a childhood of model rockets and movies of the Apollo missions, Reisman, 30, majored in mechanical engineering and economics while at Penn. An Alpha Tau Omega brother, he served as president of the InterFraternity Council in 1989. The future spacewalker credited his "great Penn experience" for giving him the skills -- both personal and professional -- to meet the challenge before him. He thanked a number of Engineering School faculty members -- including former Engineering Dean Joseph Bordogna, current Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington and M&T; Program Director William Hamilton -- for giving him the skills and guidance that led him to apply for the space program. "Without the cumulative help of all of them, I never could have done it," he said. Reisman also credited his experiences in the Wharton School and the fraternity system for giving him the interpersonal and problem-solving skills necessary to work with a crew in the close confines of a space shuttle. After graduation, Reisman received his master's degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. A native of New Jersey, he currently works as a spacecraft engineer in the Space and Electronics Group of Redondo Beach, Calif.-based TRW Inc.
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