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Technical difficulties have never kept NASA down for long, and the good folks in Houston were gracious and quick to reschedule last Friday’s event after a glitch prevented astronaut Tom Marshburn ’82 from hearing his fellow Davidsonians assembled in ye olde 900 Room. We’re on for this coming Monday afternoon!

Astronaut Tom Marshburn ’82

Davidson College will host a live NASA downlink from the International Space Station (ISS) between 4:15 and 5:30 p.m., Monday, April 22, in the C. Shaw Smith 900 Room of the Alvarez College Union. This is rescheduled from a previous event that had technical difficulties. Attendees will have the opportunity to question alumnus Astronaut Thomas Marshburn, M.D. ’82, about his experiences aboard the ISS, 230 miles above Earth.

The event is free and open to the public but seating is limited. Doors will close at 4:45 p.m. and the half-hour question and answer session will begin at approximately 4:55 p.m. The session will be simulcast to an overflow area outside of the 900 Room as well as online at http://www.davidson.edu/live.

Marshburn is currently on his second space flight. He completed his first flight in July 2009 on Space Shuttle Endeavour. Just three-and-a-half months ago he launched again aboard Soyuz TMA-07M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He is serving as flight engineer for Expedition 35, and will return to Earth in May.

Marshburn also served as a flight surgeon at Johnson Space Center, co-chair of medical operations for the Shuttle/Mir Space Program, NASA representative to the Harvard/MIT Smart Medical Systems Team of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, and lead flight surgeon and medical operations lead for Expedition 7 to the ISS.

Marshburn earned a bachelor’s degree from Davidson College as a physics major, and earned master’s degrees from the University of Virginia and University of Texas Medical Branch, and his medical degree from Wake Forest University.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,900 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.

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Links

NASA homepage

Expedition 35 Mission Summary

Current and archival Marshburn coverage on Daybook Davidson

Marshburn article in Davidson Journal

Reminder that later this week, David A. Taylor ’83 will answer your questions online, beginning Wednesday. Visit the Davidson College Online Book Club to learn more!

“Roomful of red and black!” by Eleanor Cross ’01. The C. Shaw Smith 900 Room as TV studio for the NASA video downlink

The downlink with Astronaut Tom Marshburn ’82 (see previous post) we’ll call a success, because if you think about it, connecting with anybody in real time from space is a freakin’ miracle. We could see and hear Tom, but in the event, our audio to him made it only from Davidson’s expertly engineered sound boards to Houston, but not all the way to the International Space Station 230 miles up. So, instead of the planned Q&A moderated by Richardson Professor of Physics Larry Cain, Tom did some cool somersaults and weightless parlor tricks with water drinking bags and his microphone and a bag of hazelnuts, and gave us a verbal tour of the ISS. He answered a few of the questions we’d sent up by e-mail data packet, from the personal (no, he doesn’t feel lonely with his crewmates right there and a regular rotation of familiar mission-control voices around the globe numerous times per space “day”) to the philosophical (a critical-thinking, liberal-arts perspective is essential for humans’ very survival, especially in light of the technologically-oriented world we live in).

Big thanks to Tom and the good folks at NASA, and Larry Cain and Tech Czar Jim Nash and his fine crew and Wendy Roberts in the Davidson President’s Office and a special shout-out to my colleague Gary Bartholomew (!) and our great Davidson IT folks and all the wonderful and good-natured Davidson students who prepared questions, and our special guests from the community… The list goes on of folks who will be looking forward to welcoming Tom back to Earth and back to campus. Tom, we want to see you do all those same tricks on the stage at the Duke Family Performance Hall! In the meantime, we’re proud of you, we’re proud for you, and we wish you safe travels at 17,500 mph all the way home!

Click to enlarge

Congratulations to head librarian of the Folger Shakespeare Library Stephen Enniss ’82, who has been appointed as the new director of the internationally renowned Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin.

Read all about it in the New York Times Arts Beat blog and in the UT Austin press release.

E.H. Little Library Director Emeritus Leland M. Park ’63 is so proud for his Davidson protégé! (See 2009 Davidson Journal story, right.)

Right on cue, NASA Astronaut Tom Marshburn ’82 and his International Space Station crewmates will fly over campus tonight, in a 230-mile-high orbital preview to this Friday’s live video downlink in the 900 Room.

It’s been fun and an honor to be in the middle of planning for the downlink event, which will also be live-streamed on the Internet (see below). Trivia tidbit: My newsroom office in the college’s Julia Johnston House on Main Street is directly below the room where Tom roomed as a sophomore!

You can sign up at the NASA site below for “Spot the Station” alerts. Here are the specs for tonight’s flyover:

Time: Tue Apr 09 8:37 PM, Visible: 4 min, Max Height: 43 degrees, Appears: W, Disappears: NE

Here are the specs for Friday’s campus event:

Davidson College will host a live NASA downlink from the International Space Station (ISS) between 3:30 p.m. and 4:35 p.m., Friday, April 12, in the C. Shaw Smith 900 Room of the Alvarez College Union. Attendees will have the opportunity to question alumnus Astronaut Thomas Marshburn, M.D. ’82, about his experiences aboard the ISS, 230 miles above Earth.

The event is free and open to the public; seating is limited. Doors will close at 3:55 p.m. and the half-hour question and answer session will begin at approximately 4:05 p.m. The session will be simulcast to an overflow area outside of the 900 Room as well as online.

A physics major, Marshburn earned a bachelor’s degree from Davidson College, master’s degrees from the University of Virginia and University of Texas Medical Branch, and a medical degree from Wake Forest University.

Previously, Marshburn served as a flight surgeon at Johnson Space Center, co-chair of medical operations for the Shuttle/Mir Space Program, NASA representative to the Harvard/MIT Smart Medical Systems Team of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, and lead flight surgeon and medical operations lead for Expedition 7 to the ISS.

Marshburn completed his first space flight in July 2009 on Space Shuttle Endeavour. On Dec. 19, 2012, he launched aboard Soyuz TMA-07M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Marshburn is completing his second deployment to the ISS, serving as flight engineer for Expedition 35, and will return to Earth in May.

Links

NASA homepage

Expedition 35 Mission Summary

Daybo0k coverage

Marshburn article in Davidson Journal

My mailroom buddy Allen Sherrill was rolling a big bin of envelopes into the union as I was leaving the fitness center today. It was heavy, very heavy. It was so heavy it rumpled the rug. Stacks of smaller-bins of mail within the large rolling bin teetered and tottered as he made his way to the elevator. “It’s the class of 2017!” Allen crowed. I followed him and got this cellphone shot of him goofing atop the voluminous pile. The green sheets say “Hold til 3 p.m.” That, we decided, is in case some harried admission officer needed to dash across campus and snatch something back, or switch which bin it was in. A few of the red cards on the small bins of business-sized envelopes had words like “Deep Wait” and “Deny.” But, oh, those bins of large, flat envelopes headed out around the nation and the world with their color glossy admission packets and their ecru bar-and-diamond stationery upon which is printed a sentiment doubtless commencing, “Congratulations!”—oh, those? Well, we’ll be seeing a scientifically and artistically well-honed percentage of those letters’ recipients on campus next year. Welcome in advance, Class of 2017!

The first day of classes after spring break can feel a tad sluggish for students, and the rest of us, as we hitch up our bloomers and look down the final stretch of the semester. Subtract an hour of sleep for Daylight Savings Time lag, and even more coffee may be desired….

Well, not this particular Monday, when all that’s required is exclamation points. Today, both men’s and women’s Wildcat hoopsters are playing Southern Conference championship games in Asheville! Here we go, Wildcats, here we go!

But wait! That’s not all with the exclamation points! People, get ready! It’s the Davidson College Campus Calendar, offering a panoply of possibilities, some things old, some things new, something for everybody on Earth and then some.

Click for article.

• Out of This World—It’s been a treat to converse by e-mail with Statesville native and Davidson Wildcat astronaut Tom Marshburn, M.D. ’82, who is on a five-month deployment to the International Space Station. I’ve even waved to him as he and his crewmates flashed across the twilit Mooresville sky one recent evening. Sign up here for NASA Spot the Station alerts. And this just in: Next month, Tom will converse directly with Davidsonians in a live downlink from the International Space Station on the afternoon of Friday, April 12 between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. EDT. Mark your calendar now and full details TBA.

• Soul Writing—The word “soul” feels rare these days. But it is perhaps the single perfect word to call a reader’s attention into Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America by David A. Taylor ’83, currently featured on the Davidson College Online Book Club. Get a copy today and begin reading—and watch the Smithsonian Channel documentary, also linked at the book club page. Mark your calendar for a campus-based event on this one, too: David will join us online at the book club page for discussion Wednesday through Saturday, April 17–20, 2013!

• This Week—Taking a look at our regularly scheduled calendar just for this week, I spy a Libertarian lecture on Wednesday, a clarinet recital Thursday and a lunchtime Musical Interludes concert on Friday. Also, Friday and Saturday men’s baseball, Saturday women’s tennis and a Sunday afternoon classical music concert.

• Next week—Guys and Dolls opens, men wrestle, art opens at the Van Every/Smith Galleries, Passion Pit plays Belk Arena, and on and on.

Remember to check back early and often at the Davidson College Campus Calendar!

Dodger, July 2010. Photo by Anna Prushinski.

A huge “Thank you!” to the many, many friends of Dodger near and far who have rallied kind thoughts and prayers of strength and love after his death Jan. 24. Some of you, I only even know because he introduced us. Good dog!

This Sunday, there will be a celebration of Dodger’s life at 12 noon at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church, 102 Fairview Rd., Mooresville, N.C. 28117. All are welcome.

Afterward on this college campus of friends that he also loved best of all places on the planet, friends of Dodger will gather informally at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the cafe-level fireplace in the Alvarez College Union to share favorite Dodger stories and then take a walk together in his honor. All are welcome, up to and especially including canine buddies for the walking part!

Updated: Forgot to post the picture below of Mike hangin’ with Jesse Jackson.

Welcome to this special Honor Code edition of Daybook Davidson.

Yesterday when I went to pick up press credentials I’d applied for as a representative of the Davidson College news office, the nicest people you could ever hope to meet in the press gallery credentialing office gave me all three I’d applied for! Since I was the only one there from our office after all, that meant I had extra. So I quick called my friend Mike, at whose home near Uptown I had been cleared to crash-land if need be after the convention, and told him I had extra and would he like to go with me. I immediately felt a whoosh, as he appeared beside me on the corner of Stonewall and College. I took that as a yes.

Mike is a dyed-in-the-wool, Midwestern, Catholic, liberal Democrat political junkie—exactly the kind of expertise, not to mention entertainment, I needed along in my quest for non-partisan coverage of this most partisan political event. First, we got our story straight in case the Secret Service pressed us on just who the hell he was: Mike is a freelance writer who has worked with Davidson College and the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. All true (see Honor Code, above). Mike is a past director of the Davidson Athletic Foundation, during which time he wrote a general-interest column for the Charlotte Observer, and now he is Vice President of Development at the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.

Mike Warner (right), pretending to know Jesse Jackson and his entourage.

Here now, to make sure and certain that Mike’s use of the blogger’s press credential is honorably copacetic beyond reproach, Daybook publishes his take on the morning after the DNC in Charlotte (North Carolina). Thanks, Mike!

Uptown Charlotte still very sleepy on Friday morning—I haven’t seen any tumbleweeds blowing down College Street but if they blew through they wouldn’t find much in their paths (my apologies to Clint Eastwood). Most of the Uptown workforce remains remote; crossing my lobby on the way into my office this morning, I saw only security and cleaning crews in a space that typically pulses with alpha banker energy at the start of a workday.

A big DNC Volunteer appreciation event is still on tap for today. The security perimeters are still visible as that event becomes the DNC’s Bloody Mary after a boisterous night/week of work and celebration. Some street vendors remain for that crowd, so you can still get your Obama bumper stickers (or, for that matter, your God Hates Democrats bumper stickers—gotta love a free market).

The weather has also broken big time—more sun than we’ve seen all week. Scholars, prophets, mystics and Rush Limbaugh may argue that this is because:

1. The Devils left town on the same planes as their co-conspiring Democrats, leaving room for the Almighty to shine, or

2. After four days of vigorous effort, the Democrats purged this town of its Devils, leaving room for the Almighty to shine.

I assume Ron Paul and Occupy Wall Street South have their own explanations for the sunshine. Me, I’ll take my lunchtime walk in a city that held its own under the glare, and emerged a little more interesting, diverse and fun than it was a week ago.

—Mike Warner