Archive - August 6, 2023

  by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65)     Joseph M. Acaba spent two years in the Peace Corps serving in the Dominican Republic, 1994-96. Ten years later, in May of 2004, he became the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to be named as a NASA astronaut candidate when he was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Training Group 19. He completed his training on February 10, 2006, and was assigned to STS-119, which flew from March 15 to 28, 2009, to deliver the final set of solar arrays to the International Space Station. In 1990, Joseph had received his bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of California/Santa Barbara, and in 1992 he earned his master’s degree in geology from the University of Arizona.  He then went on to earn an M.Ed. in 2015 from Texas Tech University. In between these higher educational endeavors, he somehow managed to . . .