Astronauts for America

Join AIAA and KOA in welcoming Astronauts for America to the Blackwell Ballroom! A panel of former NASA Astronauts will be talking about their careers, their passion for space exploration, and encouraging civic engagement for students. This is an incredible opportunity to meet a Astronauts who have been on missions and want to connect with you! 

Learn a little about our guests below:

Dr. Linda Godwin joined NASA in 1980 and became an astronaut in 1986. During her career, Godwin completed four space flights and logged over 38 days in space. She also served as the assistant to the director for exploration, Flight Crew Operations Directorate at the Johnson Space Center. She was the first woman to perform spacewalks outside two different space stations, Mir in March 1996 and the International Space Station in December 2001.

Dr. Sandy Magnus is an engineer and a former NASA astronaut. She flew to space three times, as mission specialist on STS-112, as ISS crewmember during Expedition 18 and as mission specialist on STS-135. From 2012 until 2018 Magnus was the executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Selected as an astronaut candidate in 1996, Dr. Magnus was assigned to the Payloads/Habitability branch in the Astronaut office. Her work included coordinating with the European Space Agency and the Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) and Brazil. In May 1998 she was assigned to work in Russia supporting payload hardware development and testing. In 2000 she was the Spacecraft Communicator for the International Space Station. In 2002 she flew her first mission.