Tennessee Tech graduate Barry Wilmore will be on board as pilot for Monday’s launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis for a flight to the International Space Station.

Wilmore, better known to friends and family as Butch, is a Mt. Juliet native who earned his B.S and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering at Tennessee Tech.

The launch is scheduled for Monday afternoon at 1:28 Cookeville time.  The weather at the Kennedy Space Center appears to be good for launch.

The shuttle crew arrived at the Cape around midday Thursday and the official countdown to Monday's launch began at noon (11 a.m. Cookeville time) this morning.

Wilmore, who served as a Navy Test Pilot, flew 21 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm.  He has over 5,900 hours of flight time and made 663 landings on aircraft carriers including his combat missions from the USS Kennedy.

Wilmore said that he attended Tennessee Tech for two reasons.  “First and foremost, I was considering getting an engineering degree. But secondly, I wanted to play football."

He was a standout on the football field as linebacker and led the Ohio Valley Conference in tackles for the 1985 season.  He was inducted into the Tennessee Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

Wilmore suffered a knee injury before his senior year and was able to redshirt.  That allowed him to come back and play his final year of eligibility having graduated and working on his Masters as a graduate student.

"I walked onto the football team and it was a great decision,” he said.  "I was not blessed with size or speed or strength. Matter of fact, I was small and slow and weak, but I had a desire and I wanted to play." Wilmore is one of only four astronauts to play college football.  Included in that group is John Glenn who flew his first mission on February 20, 1962 aboard Mercury 6.  Glenn was the first man to orbit the earth in a flight that took him around the earth three times.

After graduating from Tech, Wilmore received a Masters in Aviation Systems at the University of Tennessee.

Wilmore was selected by NASA as a pilot in 2000.  Following two years of training and evaluation he was assigned pilot for the STS-129 crew.  He has been in training with the other crew members for this flight for a few years.

During the stop at the International Space Station, STS-129 will deliver two Express Logistics Racks and conduct three spacewalks.  On the return flight Atlantis will bring Nicole Stott home after her tour of duty on the station.

Wilmore is the second Atlantis pilot with ties to the Upper Cumberland.  Mike McCulley, a Livingston native, also piloted Atlantis on STS-34 in 1989.   Both McCulley and Wilmore were assigned Shuttle Atlantis.

Wilmore's father Eugene is also Tennessee Tech alumnus, earning a BS in industrial management in 1958.  His mother Faye is a 1959 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro where she studied biology and education. Both are retired.

The Wilmore’s have will be on hand at Cape Canaveral for the launch.  As for being prepared for such an event, his mother said, “When you have a son like Barry who has always done very dangerous things, each new thing prepares you for the next. I have a peace with it, knowing that he’s going to be able to get to the next level.”

The Wilmore family history of Tennessee Tech includes Barry's brother, Jack, a 1984 graduate in Industrial Technology, and Jack’s wife, Selena, is a 1985 graduate as well. Add to that two Wilmore grandchildren, Jack’s children – Lucas, a senior, and Elizabeth Ann, sophomore currently at Tennessee Tech.

All Photos are courtesy of NASA and some of the information is from the NASA website.

The STS-129 crew pauses for a group portrait at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. From left are Mission Specialist Leland Melvin; Pilot Barry E. Wilmore; Commander Charles O. Hobaugh; and Mission Specialists Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Robert L. Satcher Jr. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Here are some links with detailed information.

Barry "Butch" Wilmore NASA Biography.

Wilmore's meal menu for STS-129.

Barry Wilmore pre-flight interview.