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Programmer For Endeavor Now Crew On Final Flight

Posted by timothy on from the geek-makes-good dept.

Lucas123 writes "Greg Chamitoff, a computer programmer who wrote software for NASA's Endeavour spacecraft, will be blasting off on shuttle's final 15-day flight as a mission specialist on Friday. Chamitoff, who created software focused on spacecraft analysis and maneuver optimization, will operate the space station's robotic arm, and he'll also take part in two spacewalks."

68 comments

  1. Damn fool by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hasn't he seen a single science fiction movie?!?!? He'll be the comic-relief nerdy guy on the crew, who the pretty astronaut just regards as a friend, who gets killed about two-thirds the way through the mission--after providing a few laughs and some expertise in getting the escape shuttle at the abandoned space station online. No way is he going to make it to the sequel mission.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Damn fool by gman003 · · Score: 1

      Plus, it's the shuttle's last flight. As everyone knows, anybody who is about to retire, especially those on their very last day, will inevitably die tragically.

      Normally, that only applies to people, but I think under these circumstances we could extend the trope to vessels.

    2. Re:Damn fool by elrous0 · · Score: 2

      God help any older crew member who talks about how much he misses his kids and tells his daughter on the uplink that daddy will be home soon.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    3. Re:Damn fool by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

      This is his second flight... he would be a better plot device if it were his rookie mission.

    4. Re:Damn fool by cheeks5965 · · Score: 1

      maybe they'll give him a red shirt to wear.

      --
      -- Flame me and I will happily flame you back. Bring it!
    5. Re:Damn fool by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 1

      Or it could be one of those freaky "no longer human" situations. Maybe the mission will encounter an alien craft that just happens to be exploring our solar system during the last flight of Endeavor. Then Chamitoff will heroically volunteer to merge with the aliens to create a new hybrid life form, and he/it will go off to colonize a new planet. Sweeping orchestral music will play, as the crew of Endeavor looks on fondly.

      Then they will realize that only Chamitoff had the login password for the computer. Waap-waap-waap-waaaaa.

    6. Re:Damn fool by blair1q · · Score: 2

      If he doesn't bring one along himself, he's a humorless son of a bitch.

    7. Re:Damn fool by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 2

      Uh oh. That means he has to be the "brash veteran astronaut who takes too many chances". At least it also means he gets laid.

    8. Re:Damn fool by PCM2 · · Score: 1

      Sorry to say, this one gave me a little "ugh" -- you are, after all, talking about the space shuttle.

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
    9. Re:Damn fool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This reminds of my favorite line from Battle Beyond The Stars(?):

      "Why don't you come with us? You know about computers and can help."

    10. Re:Damn fool by martin-boundary · · Score: 1

      Hasn't he seen a single science fiction movie?!?!?

      Oh, he has! The problem is, he actually thinks some Evil Martian type will put a gun to his head and tell him to implement a quicksort all while a pretty green alien female massages one of his lower extremities with what looks suspiciously like a mouth appendage.

    11. Re:Damn fool by go_epsilon_go · · Score: 1

      Well, in Red Planet, it was the "space janitor" (a mechanical engineer) the one that made it to the end of the movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0199753/

    12. Re:Damn fool by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Somebody at NASA needs to replace the shirt/top part of his space uniform with a red-colored one...

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    13. Re:Damn fool by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 1

      Don't want to close my eyes
      I don't want to fall asleep
      And I don't want to miss a thing

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    14. Re:Damn fool by z917183 · · Score: 1

      Whatever happens, refuse the Red shirt! And the Gold shirt! In fact, you'd better just stick to a white shirt even if it does show spaghetti sauce. :o

    15. Re:Damn fool by laejoh · · Score: 1

      God help him twice if he has to wear a red shirt!

    16. Re:Damn fool by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      Actually, a baseball cap or grimy t-shirt would be even worse.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    17. Re:Damn fool by cheeks5965 · · Score: 0

      how come I got +1 but you got +3? mine was super funny I thought.

      --
      -- Flame me and I will happily flame you back. Bring it!
    18. Re:Damn fool by sjames · · Score: 1

      That depends, if someone else can remind him that he's not getting too old for this shit, he might be OK.

  2. And I complain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    When my boss makes me trek in on the weekend.

    1. Re:And I complain by icebike · · Score: 2

      Actually, he should have been on the first flight - sort of a quality of deliverables incentive.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  3. Wow by bcmm · · Score: 1

    Just the "giant robot arm" bit would make this any geek's dream...

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
    1. Re:Wow by blair1q · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Nope. Just the "wrote software that flies in space" part pretty much does it.

      And yes, I have.

  4. Well ain't that just grand! by TheJodster · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've been a controls programmer for fifteen years and this guy gets to write control software for a freaking space shuttle. As if that's not enough glory already, now he gets to fly in it and space walk! Lucky bastard! I hate you! Next month he'll probably win the lottery too.

    --
    A little misunderstanding? Galileo and the Pope had a little misunderstanding...
    1. Re:Well ain't that just grand! by ajlitt · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, but talk about dogfooding...

    2. Re:Well ain't that just grand! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It hardly counts as dogfooding after you've let someone else use it for _years_.

    3. Re:Well ain't that just grand! by seanmcelroy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, he's done a lot more than just hard-core programming work... this isn't his first time in space: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/chamitoff.html

      --
      Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. -Thomas Cardinal Wolsey
    4. Re:Well ain't that just grand! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Recreational interests include ... magic" I think that about sums up the fact that he is no mere mortal. Calling him a "programmer" is ... inadequate.

    5. Re:Well ain't that just grand! by Coren22 · · Score: 2

      Recreational interests include scuba diving, backpacking, flying, skiing, aikido, magic, guitar, and chess. Dr. Chamitoff is a certified divemaster and instrument rated pilot.

      Damnit, he has my dream life...where did I go wrong?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    6. Re:Well ain't that just grand! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Recreational interests include scuba diving, backpacking, flying, skiing, aikido, magic, guitar, and chess. Dr. Chamitoff is a certified divemaster and instrument rated pilot.

      Damnit, he has my dream life...where did I go wrong?

      --

      Supporting Macs in the Enterprise since 2005, God help me

    7. Re:Well ain't that just grand! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damnit, he has my dream life...where did I go wrong?

      He turned the television off and got outside.

  5. Ob. Galaxy Quest by rsborg · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the greatest non-trek trek movie:

    [the crew is on a shuttle descending to an alien planet]
    Guy Fleegman: I changed my mind. I wanna go back.
    Sir Alexander Dane: After the fuss you made about getting left behind?
    Guy Fleegman: Yeah, but that's when I thought I was the crewman that stays on the ship, and something is up there, and it kills me. But now I'm thinking I'm the guy who gets killed by some monster five minutes after we land on the planet.
    Jason Nesmith: You're not gonna die on the planet, Guy.
    Guy Fleegman: I'm not? Then what's my last name?
    Jason Nesmith: It's, uh, uh - -I don't know.
    Guy Fleegman: Nobody knows. Do you know why? Because my character isn't important enough for a last name, because I'm gonna die five minutes in.
    Gwen DeMarco: Guy, you have a last name.
    Guy Fleegman: DO I? DO I? For all you know, I'm "Crewman Number Six"! Mommy... mommy...
    Sir Alexander Dane: Are we there yet?

    --
    Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
    1. Re:Ob. Galaxy Quest by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 1

      obligatory followup:

      Gwen DeMarco: Let's get out of here before one of those things kills Guy!

  6. Re:Final launch? by chemicaldave · · Score: 1

    shuttle's final 15-day flight

    emphasis mine

  7. Emphasizing what exactly? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    shuttle's final 15-day flight

    emphasis mine

    What is your point? The June launch is a shuttle too, the shuttle Atlantis. There is more than one space shuttle you know.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Emphasizing what exactly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reading comprehension fail.

    2. Re:Emphasizing what exactly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep talking, we're sure to realize your brilliance sooner or later, right?

      Oh wait...

      Learn your apostrophe usage and you'll appear more literate to people who already know how to use them.*
      It's much more likely that they'll take notice of the actual content of your post if you look like you're at least half way familiar with how to communicate in writing.

      *whether or not you actually are literate is irrelevant. As Billy Crystal once said, "It's better to look marvelous than it is to feel marvelous."

      Your homework is to understand what I've said and begin to apply it. The Oatmeal link is a great first step towards learning your apostrophes.

    3. Re:Emphasizing what exactly? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

      a shuttle, or the shuttle?

    4. Re:Emphasizing what exactly? by LateArthurDent · · Score: 2

      shuttle's final 15-day flight

      emphasis mine

      What is your point? The June launch is a shuttle too, the shuttle Atlantis. There is more than one space shuttle you know.

      His point was that the "shuttle" in question was already identified as the Endeavor. They didn't say shuttles' final flight, they said shuttle's.

      That said, they did screw up the sentence, so I see why you were confused. It should read, "Greg Chamitoff, a computer programmer who wrote software for NASA's Endeavour spacecraft, will be blasting off on the shuttle's final 15-day flight..."

  8. I never thought I'd see the day by cstec · · Score: 1

    Wow. I had seriously written off ever getting off this rock because only hands-on science specialists ever get the seats, no matter who it is. As people in arguably the world's most remotable profession, I assumed we were doomed.

  9. Just goes to show by webbiedave · · Score: 5, Informative

    You don't need a CS degree to reach the highest of career levels.

    Seriously though, this isn't his first time in space. He's an experienced astronaut who was on the International Space Station for half a year and has multiple high level degrees in engineering, astronautics and planetary geology. He's a recipient of the esteemed Silver Snoopy Award and is literally a friggin' Eagle Scout.

    Godspeed!

    1. Re:Just goes to show by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He will get his Sainthood posthumously, after the scattered remains of his charred red shirt are found and cause many to be healed of spontaneously.

    2. Re:Just goes to show by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      bloody comment system: should read "healed of [pick your favorite horribly disfiguring diseases] spontaneously."

    3. Re:Just goes to show by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "You don't need a CS degree to reach the highest of career levels."

      Uh, yeah, but apparently in failure of that, it helps to have "high level degrees in engineering, astronautics and planetary geology". And to think: that's all it takes.

  10. Probably Not by ShavedOrangutan · · Score: 2

    They'll pull him off the flight at the last minute and send an H1B in his place. NASA will save a lot of money that way.

    --
    Godaddy is a scam and a ripoff.
  11. So we have this... by UDChris · · Score: 2

    nice red shirt for you to wear...

    --
    "Hey, I know what we're gonna do today." -- Phineas Flynn
  12. Guts by StikyPad · · Score: 1

    Chamitoff...created software focused on spacecraft analysis and maneuver optimization.

    Now that's guts, standing behind your work like that. Or crazy. One of those things. Maybe both.

    --
    https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  13. and comeing from movies that guy will get some by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1

    and coming from movies that guy will get some thing simple wrong.

  14. Your terrible understanding of grammar revealed by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Informative

    As noted by a more intelligent responder, and discovered by myself when I re-parsed the original sentence after reading your reply, the line in question was missing a "the" throwing off the whole meaning of the thing. You can talk about apostrophes all you like but people misuse them so often who can you rely on THAT to inform you of meaning over the actual words used in a sentence?

    In the end all we have ended up showing here is you lack the ability to analyze a sentence for grammatical errors, and that you are also one of the hated "Apostrophe Nazis" to boot.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Your terrible understanding of grammar revealed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And here I thought I was helping you out. Guess I won't bother being nice next time.

      For the record, the sentence is perfectly understandable even with the missing "the" - all because of the apostrophe. To answer your question, yes I will rely on the apostrophe because I did understand the sentence in the first reading so this method is clearly is working for me.

  15. Title is incorrect by ModernGeek · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's Endeavour, not Endeavor.

    --
    Sig: I stole this sig.
  16. Thanks /. by tomstockmail · · Score: 0

    I don't know what I would have done today if I didn't read a news article on an astronaut going to space.

  17. Right now, he's thinking ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... "Could I have tested that last build just a little bit more thoroughly before release?"

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  18. Misleading summary by s7uar7 · · Score: 2

    He's not some Joe Schmoe programmer who happened to get lucky with his choice of job, he has a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics and has worked with NASA for virtually his entire career.

  19. free rides by recharged95 · · Score: 1

    The ultimate boondoggle?

    Hey Greg...

    Your Welcome,
    the taxpayer

  20. Had Greg as a Lecturer in Flight Mechanics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is great. I had Greg as a lecturer when I was at Sydney University in the mid 90s. He's a great guy and really enjoyed his lectures on flight mechanics. He came back a few years ago and shared with us some of his experiences with the astronaught training program.By the way, he's not a random programmer. He's an aeronautics PhD and a few other degrees to boot.

  21. HAL is that you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From the article

    While a student at MIT, Chamitoff worked on several NASA projects, performing stability analysis for the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, designing flight control upgrades for the space shuttle's autopilot system, and developing ATTITUDE CONTROL SYSTEM SOFTWARE for the space station.

    It's only a matter of time before HAL's software runs into a bug, then god help us all!

  22. Non sequitur by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Chamitoff is a decent amateur chess player who lost to "Earth" in a 2008 competition.
    http://main.uschess.org/content/view/9951/475/

    It looks like he's interested in a bit of payback.
    http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11169/629/

  23. Congradulations NASA by Osgeld · · Score: 1

    Its difficult to find someone barley young enough to fly into space AND be able to bit bang a i386sx like a champ

  24. Best way to know code quality assurance is done by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 2

    Make the code monkey do a ride-along!

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  25. Don't want to downplay this work, but ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't want to downplay the guys work, but after reading his bio, I don't think he actually wrote any of the software used onboard the space shuttle AP101/S computers in HAL/S language. I think his code runs in the FCRs (Flight Control Rooms). It may also run on laptops taken onboard or on the space station, but not on the shuttle. My code runs on all three systems - shuttle, MCCs, and space station.

    I worked writing GN&C code for the shuttles for 5 yrs and for the mission control centers around the world for 3 yrs. He simply didn't work in the right groups.

    Drapper **did** do lots of design work for the shuttle GN&C algorithms, but the actual code wasn't written by them. That is a highly specialized skill and we were often provided with pseudo-code from Drapper, but it **never** could be used as was coded by Drapper due to very specific limitations in the flight hardware.

    Regardless, the guy has my respect. All us ASE's need to stick together - even if he's an Aggie. ;)

  26. Rocket Man by shiloh.sharps · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one flashing back on http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120029/ ?

    --
    When you're hammered everything looks like it needs nailed....
    1. Re:Rocket Man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. Came here looking for Rocket Man references, *almost* left disappointed. Main character was a programmer/robotics guy who got sent into space by NASA for cryin' out loud!

  27. Would that be... by ekc · · Score: 1

    Greg "The Easter Egg" Chamitoff?