Robert Cabana to visit U of M campus

Who: Robert Cabana, director of NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center and astronaut on four space shuttle flights; Minneapolis native and graduate of Washburn High School
What: Talk to freshmen students in a Honors physics class and presentation of Astronaut Scholarship Foundation awards; Sold-out public lecture
When: Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015; class talk at 11:15 a.m., public lecture at 7 p.m.
Where: Class in West Bank Skyway, Classroom 20 (lower level near Willey Hall), 225 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis; public lecture in Mayo Auditorium, 420 Delaware St. SE, Minneapolis
RSVP: Media representatives planning to attend should email [email protected]. You will receive detailed directions to parking and classroom location.

Minneapolis native Robert Cabana, a Hall of Fame astronaut and current NASA Kennedy Space Center Director, will visit the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, Oct. 20. He will talk about his experiences as an astronaut to a small class of freshmen students in Honors Physics I and present awards to students chosen to receive $10,000 scholarships from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

The classroom talk will precede a full-to-capacity evening public lecture entitled “NASA’s Path Forward and the Transformation of the Kennedy Space Center.” In his lecture, Cabana will discuss NASA’s path to Mars and the critical role that the Kennedy Space Center plays in NASA’s future. Cabana will also talk about his own experiences as a NASA astronaut and senior leader within NASA. The lecture is hosted by the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering. For more information about the lecture, visit cse.umn.edu/publiclecture.

About Robert Cabana
Robert D. Cabana, Colonel, USMC, (Ret.) and Director, Kennedy Space Center was born January 23, 1949, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from Washburn High School, Minneapolis, Minn., in 1967 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the United States Naval Academy in 1971.

Cabana has logged more than 7,000 hours in 45 different kinds of aircraft. A veteran of four space flights, he has logged more than 910 hours in space. He served as pilot on STS-41 Discovery (Oct. 6-10, 1990) and STS-53 Discovery (Dec. 2-9, 1992) and was mission commander on STS-65 Columbia (July 8-23, 1994) and STS-88 Endeavour (Dec. 4-15, 1998), the first International Space Station assembly mission. Cabana currently serves as the Director of Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Cabana was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 3, 2008.