EP’s NASA Facility Hosted Olivas, Many Other Colleagues

EL PASO, TX – The NASA facilitynear the El Paso International Airporthas served as a training ground for astronauts of previous space missions and will be involved in the launch that involves native El Pasoan Danny Olivas.

Larry Glenn, A NASA Flight Engineer,tells ABC-7 El Paso is home to NASA’s Forward Operating Location, a primary training facility for astronauts as well as the home for the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA).

Current Atlantis Shuttle Pilots, Commander Rick Sturckow and Colonel Lee Archambault, were recently in El Paso to train on a the STA, which is stored and maintained at the facility near the El Paso International Airport.

The STA is stored and maintained at the facility, which is near the El Paso International Airport.

“El Paso has certainly played a huge role in astronaut training and crew training for well over a quarter of a century…right here in El Pasoan’s backyard,” stated Glenn.

The facility also provides support for the space agency on launch and landing days and will take part in Friday’s landing.

“We will facilitate weather flights, which means we are going out there to take a real time look at the condition of the air for launch,” stated Terry Lee, Assistant Facility Manager and Flight Trainer.

A picnic table at the facility serves as evidence that former astronauts have passed through El Paso.

Every astronaut thattrains inthe facilityeventually signs his name onthe table, which is locatednear aNASA hanger.

“It’s kind of like putting your mission patch on…the next crew is going to put their mission patch somewhere … pretty big namesare here … there are huge names here and the most exciting thing is I know a lot of these people,” stated Lee.