A Visit to the International Space Station

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

Nearly 8 billion people live on Earth, but less than 250 have ever lived off of it. Join one of those lucky few to explore the only man-made home that’s truly out of this world: the International Space Station. Leland Melvin has not only lived on the ISS twice, but he also helped to build it. In this class, Leland will give students a tour of the space station, explain what it’s like to live there, and highlight the lessons that scientists have learned—and will soon learn—on arguably the greatest accomplishment in human history.