First Knight in Space

Mission specialist and UCF graduate Nicole Stott is currently aboard the Space shuttle Discovery that launched Friday, Aug. 28, at 11:59 p.m. Stott and fellow specialist Danny Olivas completed the first spacewalk of the mission yesterday. The shuttle is carrying equipment, experiments and supplies for the International Space Station, including the COLBERT treadmill, named for comedian Stephen Colbert. The mission will last 13 days and is scheduled to return Sept. 10 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This launch has a special meaning to UCF students and alumni as Stott is the first Knight in space. A native of Clearwater, Fla., Stott earned a Master's degree in Engineering Managment from UCF in 1992. She joined NASA in 1988 as an operations engineer at the Kennedy Space Center. Selected as a mission specialist by NASA in July 2000, Stott reported for astronaut candidate training in August 2000 and following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, has performed technical and astronaut support duties, and worked with a crew on an underwater research habitat. She is currently assigned to a long duration space flight as a member of the ISS Expeditions 20 and 21 crews. She is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station with the crew of STS-128 and return with the crew of STS-129. For an in-depth pre-flight interview with Stott, click here. For blog updates from Stott and the crew during the mission, including a photo of Stott's spacewalk, click here.