Astronaut at Athens State University for Flag Day

(from left to right) Doris Estes, Army Astronaut, Col. T. J. Creamer, Louise Steele & Diane Lehr
at The Flag Day Celebration at Athens State University.

Louise Steele is 91 years young, an Athens State University Alumni board member, a member of John Wade Keyes DAR, an avid ballroom dancer, and said she "was thrilled to pieces to meet an astronaut and to celebrate flag day at Athens State."  

Col. Timothy J. Creamer was assigned to NASA in July 1995 as a space shuttle vehicle integration test engineer. His duties primarily involved engineering liaison for launch and landing operations of the space shuttle. He was actively involved in the integrated tests of the systems for each orbiter for its preparations for its next flight, and directly supported eight shuttle missions as a vehicle integration test team lead. Additionally, he focused his efforts in coordinating the information technologies for the Astronaut Office to aid personnel in their electronic communications both on JSC as well as through their travels to other centers.

Creamer and the flag he brought to Athens State, were launched aboard a Soyuz TMA-17 crew capsule on December 21, 2009, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russia, docking with the International Space Station two days later to join Expedition 22 crew. For the next 161 days, Creamer lived and worked aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer and NASA Science Officer on Expedition 22/23. The Expedition 23 crew returned to a safe landing in central Kazakhstan on June 2, 2010. In completing this long duration mission, Creamer logged a total of 163 days in space.

Article and Photo by Doris Estes
 and Diane Lehr