Kathleen Hosie,Press officer,U.S.Consulate General,Chennai, introduces U.S.Astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger to the TNSTC students in Chennai

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Kathleen Hosie,Press Officer, U.S.Consulate General, Chennai introduces U.S.Astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger,who participated in the Space Talks virtually from the United States, to the gathering of city college and school students at the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre (TNSTC) in Chennai today

CHENNAI, JULY 15:  The U.S. Consulate General in Chennai, in association with the Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre (TNSTC), organized a virtual lecture by U.S. Astronaut for undergraduate and high school students in the fields of science and technology on July 15.  The event was held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing and India’s second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2.

Retired NASA astronaut Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger spoke about her Space Shuttle Discovery Mission (STS-131), a 15-day mission to resupply the International Space Station in April 2010.  During the mission, she served as the Mission Specialist 2 (aka flight engineer), the robotic arm operator, the Intra-vehicular crew member (the inside coordinator of the spacewalks), and a transfer crew member (helping move six tons of hardware and equipment).   During June of 2012, Ms. Metcalf-Lindenburger commanded the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation (NEEMO) in the Aquarius Reef Habitat off the Florida coast.  The underwater mission sought to develop techniques for working at an asteroid.

U. Sagayam, IAS, Vice-Chairman of Science City, TNSTC presided over the event, and Prof. Nandan Kumar Sinha, Flight Mechanics and Control Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras, delivered the final remarks.  Dr. S. Soundararajaperumal, Executive Director, TNSTC, and I.K. Lenin Tamilkovan, Scientific Officer, TNSTC, spoke at the event.

Speaker Bios:

Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburg is a geologist and retired NASA astronaut.  In addition to space hours, she also commanded the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 16, an underwater habitat with an international crew of aquanauts and habitat technicians.  Together, they simulated spacewalks that can be applied to future space research and exploration and sought to develop techniques for working at an asteroid.  Prior to her NASA career, she was an astronomy teacher at Hudson’s Bay High School in Vancouver, Washington and was also the first Space Camp alumna to become an astronaut.  She regularly speaks about promoting STEAM education around the globe.

Dr. Nandan Kumar Sinha is a professor and head of flight dynamics and control lab in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras.  At IIT Madras, he teaches various courses around design, modeling, simulation, and control of aerospace vehicles and conducts research in these areas mainly focusing on autonomy of unmanned vehicles.  Prof. Sinha is well known for his online courses on aircraft flight dynamics, introduction to space technology, and for his two books on aircraft flight dynamics published by CRC press, USA.  In the year 2018, Prof. Sinha was a participant in the prestigious International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on the theme of U.S.-India Space Cooperation.  He has BTech, MTech, and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering, all from IITs, and has worked in Germany as Post-doctoral visiting scientist before coming back to India.