NASA Astronaut, and former Illinois Fighting Illini football captain, Col. Mike Hopkins will conduct a live discussion from the International Space Station with the current Fighting Illini football team Dec. 16 from 2:15-2:45 pm CST.
Hopkins was deployed on Expedition 37/38 in September, and is scheduled to return to Earth in March, 2014. The live discussion was arranged in cooperation with NASA. Illini players will have an opportunity to ask questions with Hopkins, and he’ll have a chance to address the team.
Hopkins played for the Illini from 1988-91, earning a degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1991. At Stanford he completed his master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1992. Yes, one year! Just one year. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force in January, 1992, and worked his way through the Air Force until he commenced astronaut training in 2008. Col. Hopkins was selected in July 2009 as one of 14 members of the 20th NASA astronaut class.
A recording of the session with Col. Hopkins will be posted on FightingIllini.com Monday afternoon.
When the mission began this past fall at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, we had a “great success!” Hopkins, along with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy, launched into space and reached the ISS the next morning.
The three-man crew rode a Soyuz rocket and the astronauts are living aboard the orbiting laboratory until this March. Follow Twitter updates from NASA’s Expedition 37 astronauts. visit:
@AstroKarenN
@AstroIllini – This is Hopkins
@astro_luca
Hopkins has posted several photos from space on his Twitter account during his time on the ISS, and sent weekly motivational videos to the football team during the 2013 college football season.
Hopkins’ Illini teammates included Jeff George, former Atlanta Falcons DL Moe Gardner, and RB Keith Jones. As well as current Illini WR Coach Mike Bellamy. Hopkins received the Illini’s special teams player of the year award in 1989. That specific Illini team went 10-2, beating Virginia pretty soundly in the Citrus Bowl.
To join the online conversation about the International Space Station, Expedition 37 and the Illini in space on Twitter, follow the hashtags #ISS, #Exp37 and #Soyuz.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS Catch him Tuesdays talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN 1620 The Zone, Fridays talking Chicago Bears for WAOR 95.7 The Fan