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POMONA, CA—- – Congresswoman Norma J. Torres (CA-35) will work with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to host Reach for the Stars, a town hall connecting local students with Pomona native and NASA astronaut, Victor J. Glover, Jr. (Commander, U.S. Navy), as well as NASA astronaut, Dr. Shannon Walker, live from the International Space Station on Thursday, March 18th at 9:35am PT.
Commander Glover is originally from Pomona and graduated from Ontario High School in 1994. He currently serves as pilot and second-in-command on the Crew-1 SpaceX Dragon named Resilience, which launched November 15, 2020. It is the first post-certification mission of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft – the second crewed flight for that vehicle – and a long duration mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Shannon Walker was selected by NASA to be an astronaut in 2004. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics, a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in Space Physics from Rice University. Dr. Walker began her professional career at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in 1987 as a Robotics Flight Controller for the Space Shuttle Program. In 2010, she served as Flight Engineer for Expedition 24/25, a long-duration mission aboard the International Space Station that lasted 163 days. Dr. Walker is currently serving as mission specialist on the on the Crew-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon.
This event currently has nearly 600 RSVPs, including 277 classrooms registered to join.
Participating school districts include Pomona Unified, Ontario-Montclair, Chaffey Joint Unified, Claremont Unified, Mountain View Unified, Fontana Unified and Rialto Unified.
