Alumnus Shane Kimbrough Takes Final Spacewalk

Georgia Tech graduate Shane Kimbrough is taking a walk outside today. Kimbrough and fellow American Peggy Whitson are performing a spacewalk to update the International Space Station for future cargo missions. They’re expected to work for six-and-a-half hours. NASA is providing a live video feed.

This is the sixth spacewalk of Kimbrough’s life and his fourth during this mission. He’s set to return to Earth a week from Monday, April 10, to conclude a five-month stay in orbit. Since arriving on October 21, Kimbrough has captured cargo ships with a robotic arm, grown lettuce and flown a flag from Georgia Tech’s mascot, the Ramblin’ Wreck.

Kimbrough is the commander of the station and is responsible for its crew of six. He received his master’s degree in operations research from the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering in 1998. He grew up in Smyrna, Georgia, and attended Tech basketball and football games as a kid.

This is Kimbrough’s second trip to space — he flew aboard the space shuttle in 2008. Georgia Tech has 14 astronaut graduates, tied for second among public universities.