Texas Tech alumni who worked at NASA are honored in a new exhibit at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library.
Texas Tech University and West Texas are not often associated with NASA and its many incredible accomplishments. Yet from the earliest attempts at manned space flight until the present day, many of the talented men and women who guided us to the stars hailed from West Texas, were educated at Texas Tech, or have served among Texas Tech’s faculty and administration. Quotes and stories from oral histories with former TTU Regent Bernard Harris and Dean of Engineering Al Sacco are included, as well as from moon walkers and mission controllers from the region.
February 2018 also commemorates the 15th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy. The exhibit includes portraits, quotes and memorabilia from TTU graduate and STS-107 Commander Rick Husband, whose papers are housed at the Southwest Collection, as well as from Lubbockite Willie McCool, the shuttle pilot. McCool’s items were loaned for the exhibit through the generosity of his parents, Texas Tech professors Audrey and Barry McCool, and his widow, Lani McCool. A video about the STS-107 mission is also on view.
The exhibit will be on view to the public in the Southwest Collection’s east rotunda until July 2018.
