Becoming an Astronaut

About Leland Melvin

As a former NASA astronaut, Leland Melvin has twice flown on the space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space station, where he helped to install the station’s Columbus Laboratory. He credits his NASA career to his childhood fascination with science, both formally in the classroom and informally as he tinkered with skateboards to make them faster and family vehicles to customize them for family vacations. After returning to earth, he served as NASA’s Associate Administrator for Education, and continues to teach students about STEM, spaceflight, and perseverance as a teacher for the Varsity Tutors StarCourse series.

About the class

Every person who has ever been to space was once just a kid who wondered what it would be like to become an astronaut. That includes two-time International Space Station resident Leland Melvin, whose life as a scientist began with building skateboards and some notable accidents with home chemistry sets. In this interactive class, he’ll explain to aspiring astronauts how to make the journey from childhood to orbit—including some surprising tips and some amazing tales of how he did it.