Another Tennessee Tech graduate has reached an incredible milestone. Barry Wilmore, who graduated in 1994, will be piloting the space shuttle Alantis.

This is especially important to Tennessee Tech since attending the school has become somewhat of a tradition to the Wilmore family. A number of the Wilmores have gone to the college.

Barry's parents will be attending a video-conference download link at TN Tech. Barry and other members of the crew will be answering questions from K-12 students.

After graduating TN Tech, Wilmore applied for the Navy, but failed to be accepted because of a knee injury. After several more physicals, the Navy gave him a shot and he was allowed to fly 21 missions in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He was chosen as an astronaut candidate in 2000. He spent 2 years in training and evaluation before being assigned to more technical duties. He was also on the astronaut support team and helped with several launches in the Kennedy Space Center.