Physics Major and Minor

Astronaut Josh Cassada, an Albion College Class of 1995 alumnus, will fly the first mission of a Boeing-manufactured commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station, NASA announced today. It will be Cassada’s first spaceflight after his selection by NASA as part of its 2013 astronaut class. The Navy commander and test pilot has accumulated more than 3,500 flight hours in more than 40 aircraft.

The physics professor’s studies of lunar impact glass continue to reveal clues, leading to more questions.

A crowd of hundreds convened on the Quad and on the roof of Palenske Hall to witness the first solar eclipse to cross the entire continental United States since 1918. In Albion, skygazers saw the moon cover nearly 90 percent of the sun for a couple of minutes during the nearly three-hour astronomical event.

The first total solar eclipse to make its way across the length of the United States in 99 years is set for, coincidentally, the first day of the 2017 fall semester at Albion (August 21), and the College—with help from Antoniu Fodor, ’18 (left), and other students in the astronomy club, as well as the backing of physics professor and planetary scientist Nicolle Zellner—will chronicle it all.

Nicolle Zellner still remembers those perfect Wisconsin nights when, as a kid, she’d look up to the sky and into the endless darkness full of possibility and uncertainty, and wonder what else was up there.

On Friday afternoon, October 16, NASA Astronaut and Lt. Commander, U.S. Navy, Josh Cassada, ’95, will look out into a sea of young faces and wonder if and when, and perhaps most important, why not?