Virtual chat with retired NASA astronaut Brian Duffy

Free with Delaware Museum of Natural History admission.

As an astronaut on four space shuttle flights, Brian Duffy spent a total of nearly 40 days in space, serving as pilot and later commander. Today, at Orbital ATK, he’s on the team developing the next generation of space exploration, with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Discover the possibilities for this next generation of space exploration at a virtual chat with Duffy, hosted in the Delaware Museum of Natural History’s Community Room on Thursday, July 21 at 10 a.m.

The rocket’s inaugural flight, scheduled for 2018, will launch the Orion spacecraft to a stable orbit beyond the moon, a mission designed to demonstrate the integrated system performance of Orion and the SLS rocket prior to the first crewed flight. The SLS is intended to eventually take humans to Mars.

Duffy is now vice president of Johnson Space Center Exploration Programs for Orbital ATK’s Propulsion Systems Division, the company creating the two solid rocket motors that will be used on the SLS rocket. In June, Orbital ATK and NASA completed a ground test for the rocket’s motor.

On his first two shuttle flights, STS-45 in 1992 and STS-57 in 1993, Duffy served as the pilot of Atlantis and Endeavour on missions to study the effects of the Sun on the Earth’s atmosphere and to work on the first commercially developed Spacehab module. In 1996, as commander of Endeavour STS-72, Duffy led the retrieval of a Japanese microgravity research spacecraft from orbit. Four years later he commanded Discovery’s STS-92 mission to continue assembly of the International Space Station. After retiring from NASA, Duffy joined Orbital ATK in 2011. He primarily supports the program team providing the five-segment solid rocket boosters for NASA’s Space Launch System. The SLS, along with NASA’s Orion spacecraft, provides a flexible deep space exploration platform to take humans and cargo to multiple destinations across our solar system.

Duffy was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in May. He is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel, having served for 26 years. While in the Air Force, he was an F-15 pilot. Following graduation from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, he served as a test pilot and program manager for uniquely modified F-15 aircraft at Eglin Air Force Base. Duffy has logged more than 5,000 flight hours in more than 25 different types of aircraft. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Duffy received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California.