2003 Astronaut Scholar Annual Meeting
Thirty Astronaut Scholars attended the annual meeting in 2003 — an all-time record high attendance! For the first time in history, the scholars who had just been selected for the 2003–04 academic year were invited, because there was sufficient time between the Scholarship Committee selection meeting and the Astronaut Scholar Meeting. Nine of the seventeen current scholars took advantage of the invitation and came to Florida. It was a truly memorable event both due to the activities that took place and the large number of scholars and guests who attended.
The group was hosted on the traditional VIP tour of Kennedy Space Center and the Astronaut Hall of Fame, and scholars were thrilled to meet inductee Sally Ride while visiting the Hall of Fame. The scholars and their guests received complimentary admission to The Right Stuff Gala on Friday and a private dinner with the astronauts at Yen Yen's in Cocoa Beach on Saturday. Both of these events drew rave reviews from the scholars, and they were also able to take home a souvenir poster signed by fourteen of their astronaut heroes.
On Sunday morning, all of the scholars met for breakfast and were joined by several astronauts and ASF Board members to say a final farewell. Thanks to Astronaut Scholar Patrick Biltgen who got all of us organized to bring our digital cameras to breakfast so that he could download photos from the event to his laptop computer. Scholars then received copies of all the photos on CDs that were mailed to them shortly after the event.
The Astronaut Scholars Honor Society held its annual meeting during the four-day event, and each scholar presented a poster on the main topic of their research, academic interests, or career achievements. It was a great opportunity to make both personal and technical connections and continue building our strong network of some of the brightest young minds in science and engineering in America!