UConn Alum, NASA Astronaut Gives Commencement Speech From International Space Station

STORRS The commencement speaker for the University of Connecticut's School of Engineering couldn't make it to campus to give his speech in person on Saturday, but the graduates seemed to understand. After all, the International Space Station is a long way from Storrs.

As he began his video speech to approximately 400 engineering students about to receive their degrees, astronaut Rick Mastracchio speculated about how to make the address memorable.

"I thought, I'm in a weightless environment," he said. "Maybe I should give the speech in a different orientation."

The crowd of students, faculty and parents inside Gampel Pavilion laughed and applauded as Mastracchio proceeded to flip himself upside down, floating between two spacesuits aboard the space station, where the Waterbury native and UConn alumnus has been for the past six months.

"I probably have the best job, on or off the earth," Mastracchio said, after he righted himself for the camera.

He went on to explain that getting the job wasn't easy; after his own graduation from UConn in 1982, Mastracchio earned two master's degrees, worked several engineering jobs and repeatedly sent in applications to NASA's astronaut corps. After nine years of applying, Mastracchio was chosen as an astronaut candidate in 1996.

"Nine years is a long time to pursue anything, especially a job," he said.

Mastracchio said that becoming an astronaut is like accomplishing any goal: It takes "hard work and perseverance," qualities he said the graduates had already shown by making it through UConn's engineering program.

"That is not easy," he said. "I have been there."

This is Mastracchio's fourth mission to the International Space Station, which is orbiting about 260 miles above the Earth's surface. He told the graduates Saturday that at his commencement, he never could have imagined he'd be where he is today.

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UConn Alum, NASA Astronaut Gives Commencement Speech From International Space Station