NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough is on his way back to outer space with two other Russian cosmonauts and is expected to dock at the International Space Station on Oct. 21, according to the latest NASA media release.
Kimbrough, a Smyrna native, Lovett School, U.S. Military Academy and Georgia Tech grad, launched from Kazakhstan on Wednesday morning and is scheduled to remain aboard the station until late February along with his crew mates Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko.
The crew will spend their time conducting more than 250 science investigations in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences and technology development.
This isn't Kimbrough's first mission. In 2008, he was aboard the space shuttle Endeavor. Kimbrough is just one of 14 Tech graduates who have been in space, according to a previous AJC report.
According to Kimbrough's NASA biography, he was born in Texas but grew up attending Atlanta's Lovett School, received a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the United States Military Academy and later, a masters in operations research from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
His wife—Robbie Lynn Nickels of Marietta—and him have three children.
In 2000, Kimbrough joined the NASA team at the Johnson Space Center.
Kimbrough has been keeping his social media followers updated on the current mission, often posting to his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
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