1st Puerto Rican Astronaut going to Space

	National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Houston, Texas 77058
Biographical Data

JOSEPH M. ACABA
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:  Born in 1967 in Inglewood, California and raised in Anaheim, California where his parents Ralph and Elsie still reside.  Enjoys outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, and scuba diving.  Also enjoys reading, especially science fiction.

EDUCATION: Esperanza High School, Anaheim, California, 1985
                    B.S., Geology, University of California-Santa Barbara, 1990
                    M.S., Geology, University of Arizona, 1992

ORGANIZATIONS:  International Technology Education Association and Florida Association of Science Teachers.

EXPERIENCE:  United States Marine Corps, Reserves.  Worked as a hydro-geologist in Los Angeles, California.  Primarily worked on Superfund sites and was involved the assessment and remediation of groundwater contaminants.  Spent 2 years in the United States Peace Corps as an Environmental Education Awareness Promoter in the Dominican Republic.  Served as the Island Manager of the Caribbean Marine Research Center at Lee Stocking Island in the Exumas, Bahamas.  Shoreline Revegetation Coordinator in Vero Beach, Florida, planning, designing, and implementing a mangrove revegetation project.  One year of high school experience at Melbourne High School, Florida and four years of middle school experience as a math and science teacher at Dunnellon Middle School, Florida.

NASA EXPERIENCE:  Selected as a Mission Specialist by NASA in May 2004.  In February 2006 he completed Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training.  Upon completion of his training, Acaba was assigned to the Hardware Integration Team in the Space Station Branch working technical issues with European Space Agency (ESA) hardware.  Currently he is assigned as a mission specialist on the STS-119 mission, targeted for launch in February 2009.  The flight will deliver the final pair of power-generating solar array wings and truss element to the International Space Station.

Joseph Acaba: Boricua en la Luna

By Marcelo Ballvé  Updated Thursday, February 19th 2009, 1:17 PM

An old Puerto Rican tune, "Boricua en la Luna," seems almost tailor-made to describe the cosmic destiny of Joseph Acaba.

The 41-year-old schoolteacher is readying to become the first astronaut of Puerto Rican heritage.

By all accounts, the California-born Acaba, who lives in Houston, will feel Boricua even floating above planet Earth, swaddled in an orange spacesuit.

"He’s very proud of his heritage," said Shane Kimbrough, an astronaut and spaceflight veteran who trained with Acaba.

Barring delays, Acaba will launch Sunday as part of a seven-member crew on the space shuttle Discovery.

The mission: Fly to the International Space Station and deliver power-generating components.

Among relatives attending the launch will be Acaba’s 90-year-old paternal grandmother, Jovita.

"We all feel very close, very happy, and support him in everything," she said in a phone interview from Gardena, Calif.

Asked if there was anything in her grandson’s youth that hinted at his future in space travel, she thought for a moment and said, "He always liked those action movies."

In a NASA preflight interview, Acaba was asked what he thought it would be like to float out the shuttle hatch for his spacewalks.

"I hear the views ... are incredible, so I’m looking forward to that and trying to fit a little bit of work in there," he said.

Acaba taught math and science to middle- and high-schoolers in Marion County, Fla. He was also a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic.

He was among three teachers NASA selected for astronaut training in 2004.Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, a science teacher in Washington state, was also selected. She said Acaba’s steadiness, organization and selflessness make him an ideal crew member.

When the Houston area was evacuated during last year’s hurricanes, Acaba made sure everyone else was out before making his own plans, she said.

Despite stressful training, which included jet piloting and survival tests in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, Acaba always kept a level head.

That’s an important quality, noted Kimbrough, because in space, "when things start going wrong, things can get bad pretty quick."

Metcalf-Lindenburger, who is scheduled to go to space next year and shared an office with Acaba, said she was struck by his habit of making 3x5 cards to learn technical terms or Russian vocabulary.

“Sometimes we’d borrow his flash cards and review too,” she said.

Resource: www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/02/18/2009-02-18_joseph_acaba_boricua_en_la_luna.html