While I was driving south on Highway 29 past the University last year, a co-worker who was new to NASA called my cell phone and asked, "What does it mean when the shuttle is late?" The countdown clock at Cape Canaveral had reversed direction and started counting upward. The crowd in Florida anxiously awaited the welcoming sonic boom announcing the arrival of the space shuttle Columbia. The boom never came. One year later we are memorializing our fallen friends, family members and heroes.

For almost 15 years I have been involved with the space program, thanks to the Engineering School at the University of Virginia. Former engineering professor Glenn Stoner invited me to assist him with electrochemistry research while I was still pursuing dreams of a career as a wide receiver with the Dallas Cowboys. I was able to take graduate courses in materials science via videotape while catching footballs by day for Tom Landry's America's Team. Eventually an injury derailed my gridiron goals, but a welcoming faculty at Virginia brought me back into the classroom and returned me to the engineering track.

As an engineer, I worked for nine years at NASA Langley Research Center before receiving the call to join a different "America's Team" - the Astronaut Corps. Throughout my career I have utilized engineering principals to apply health-monitoring smart sensors to aerospace vehicles, helping to ensure a safe and cost-effective operation. Currently, I serve at NASA Johnson Space Center in the Robotics Branch, which is intimately involved with the shuttle "Return to Flight" efforts. The shuttle robotic arm will be used with a sensor suite to help ensure that the shuttle's thermal protection systems are not compromised in future flights.

Engineering is about more than building, designing and synthesizing. It is about making life more productive and safer for humankind.

Our nation has paused to redefine its space policy in the wake of the Columbia tragedy. I was in Washington, D.C., when President Bush announced our new space vision to return humans to the moon, with future explorations to Mars. As engineers, it is our duty to make certain that the next generation of explorers is well equipped with the tools necessary to meet this challenge.

These young minds that we inspire now will follow in the unprecedented tracks made on the Martian surface by NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity. With SPIRIT and OPPORTUNITY, we can do anything!

- NASA Astronaut Leland Melvin
(MS Mat. Sci. '90)

When you contribute to the Engineering School Annual Fund, lives are changed, doors are opened, and the possibilities are endless.

Some donors contribute a great deal but many contribute smaller amounts on a regular basis, each according to his or her means.

The overall impact is an essential financial support system for engineering education and research at the University of Virginia.

Annual Fund contributions seed and support School efforts, ranging from scholarships and fellowships to major capital construction. Donations support alumni activities and communications, parent activities, welcome and graduation gifts to undergraduates, faculty activities, undergraduate projects, and loans to students.

Gifts, no matter the size, help assure the continued excellence of engineering education at the University of Virginia.

Please join us in proving the power of one.