Hoosier set to blast off aboard Endeavor

By Lisa Trigg
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE June 15, 2009 09:37 am

— When Astronaut Dave Wolf heads into space Saturday morning aboard the space shuttle Endeavor, it will be with a large contingency of Hoosiers watching nearby.
In fact, about 300 people will attend a big party Friday afternoon at Wakulla Suites near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to honor Wolf, a former flight surgeon at the Indiana Air National Guard in Terre Haute.
Retired Lt. Col. John Egan, a Riley resident, will be among friends and family who have traveled to Florida for the launch of the space shuttle Endeavor.
“We’ll be there cheering him on,” said Egan, who has been present for Wolf’s three previous launches as well. “He may be able to join us through a two-way video link, but we won’t actually be with him. He’s in quarantine now getting ready to go.”
The two men share a strong bond that formed after Wolf, an Indianapolis native, joined the 181st Tactical Fighter Group in 1983.
“I’ve been friends with him since the first day he walked in,” Egan said. “He told me he’d had a dream since he was eight to be an astronaut.”
Wolf stayed with the Terre Haute unit, now the 181st Intelligence Wing, for several years and was trained as a pilot on the F-4 Phantom fighters. Though he was a physician in charge of all required medical exams for pilots in the unit, by holding that position, he gained access to flight time and acquired many more skills and experience than the typical flight surgeon.
Wolf earned an engineering degree from Purdue University in 1978, and then followed in his father’s footsteps to earn a medical degree from Indiana University in 1982. It was Egan who introduced Wolf to key people at NASA, and launched his career with the space agency. At one point, Egan said, he convinced Wolf to “do the Russian thing” and the next morning they were taking classes to learn the Russian language. Wolf ended up living on the Russian Mir space station for 128 days.
Egan’s connections to NASA began in the 1960s when he met young pilots training for the lunar missions. He was a pilot himself, and happened to be near Flagstaff, Ariz., when a meteor hit. He drove to the area, and met people who would be instrumental in NASA’s future development.
A native of the Blanford area, Egan started his post-secondary education at Rose-Hulman Institute, but ran out of money and ended up finishing his bachelor’s degree at Eastern Illinois University. Despite his NASA connections, he said he had no personal interest in pursuing a career involving space flight.
“I was too busy doing this Air Guard thing at Terre Haute,” Egan said.
But it put him in the perfect place to meet Wolf years later.
Wolf, 52, now serves as mission specialist on this trip to the International Space Station, and will be making three space walks to help install new space station components and equipment.
As of Wednesday afternoon, preparations to begin Mission STS-127 were proceeding on schedule for a 7:17 a.m. Saturday liftoff at Launch Pad 39A. The 16-day mission is the 32nd flight dedicated to space station construction, and the final of a series of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japanese Kibo laboratory complex.
Wolf still stays in touch with friends at the 181st in Terre Haute. In fact, Lt. R.J. Brown said he will be returning to the area in the fall, and it is hoped he will help promote the Indiana Air National Guard as an important career choice for young people. After all, it helped launch Wolf’s career into space.

Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com.