Hawai'i helps astronaut turn 40 in style
By Kawehi Haug
Advertiser Staff Writer
Astronaut Ed Lu got an unexpected birthday gift from Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday.
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Lu, who is aboard the international space station with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, participated in a live two-way videoconference with Gov. Linda Lingle and visiting NASA astronaut Carlos Noriega. They wished Lu, who turns 40 today, a happy birthday and Lingle issued a state proclamation declaring July 1 as Edward Tsang Lu Day in Hawai'i.
Gov. Linda Lingle and NASA astronaut Carlos Noriega chat with fellow astronaut Ed Lu and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko during a videoconference yesterday. Lingle and Noriega wished happy birthday to Lu, who turns 40 today. Lu and Malenchenko, wearing red aloha shirts, are on a six-month mission on the international space station.
Lingle congratulated Lu for his accomplishments and wished him a "birthday celebration that is out of this world."
Lu said he is honored to be recognized by the people of Hawai'i and added that he's always appreciated the beauty of Hawai'i, "especially from up here."
Although he was born and raised in New York and lived in Hawai'i for three years, Lu considers Hawai'i to be one of his homes.
Lu was a postdoctoral fellow at the UH Institute for Astronomy in 1992, as well as an assistant wrestling coach at Punahou School. He will be married on Maui later this year.
Lu has a "deep love and respect for the people, places and cultures of the Islands," Lingle said. "In turn, the people of Hawai'i have come to know and respect him as one of our own."
Lu and Malenchenko, dressed in matching red aloha shirts, said they are working on popularizing aloha print by wearing the shirts in space. "Even the Russians are wearing it now," Lu said, laughing.
Lu and Malenchenko are on a six-month mission. They left from Kazakhstan on April 26 in the Russian Space Agency's Soyuz capsule and are scheduled to return in October.
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Lu is the first Asian American to serve as an expedition crew member aboard the international space station. He was a member of two space shuttle missions in 1997 and 2000. During the 2000 mission, he and Malenchenko performed a six-hour space walk to lay cable and install a boom for a navigation unit on the exterior of the international space station.
Ed Lu said he always takes a piece of Hawai'i with him into space.
This is the first international space station mission with only two crew members.
Lu said he never leaves Earth without taking a piece of Hawai'i with him — macadamia nuts, Kona coffee or aloha shirts for the crew.
Noriega also has ties to Hawai'i, having served as a Marine Corps pilot who was stationed at Kane'ohe in the 1980s. As a mission specialist and computer scientist, his spacecraft docked with the Russian space station Mir in May 1997 and helped assemble the international space station. He is scheduled for a 2004 shuttle mission to the space station.
Noriega will give a free public lecture at 9 a.m. Thursday at Windward Community College's Paliku Theatre.
