National: Retired astronaut touches down in Irish university

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Pictured at the MTU Bishopstown Campus, Cork was Dr Steve Swanson with President of MTU, Professor Maggie Cusack and Dr Niall Smith, MTU Head of Research

Retired US astronaut Steve Swanson visited Ireland and gave an insightful talk to students in one university.

Dr Swanson paid a visit to MTU on Monday, February 19, to give a talk about his experiences and observations of life in orbit beyond our planetary bounds. 

A distinguished NASA astronaut, Steve Swanson PhD has flown to the International Space Station on three occasions, and has spent 195 days in space, including five space walks, totalling 28 hours and five minutes.

His awards and honours include the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal and the JSC Certificate of Accommodation, Flight Simulation Engineering Award, and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. 

During the event, Dr Swanson shared video clips of his experiences and gave a virtual tour of his life on board.  

The visit was sponsored by DELL Technologies Ireland, and Dr Swanson was accompanied to Cork by Ross Barber and Jack Enright from the International Space School Educational Trust (ISSET) organisation in the UK.

He also addressed secondary students in Midleton College and at DELL (EMC) in Ballincollig earlier in the day. 

Dr Swanson has served in other roles at NASA, such as a CAPCOM for both International Space Station and Space Shuttle missions.