District 200 grad living NASA dream
Aiming for the stars has paid off for Luke Miles.
Since graduating from Wheaton Warrenville South High School in 2000, the 28-year-old has earned an aerospace engineering degree and now trains NASA astronauts how to operate portions of the space shuttle.
Next month, Miles will be part of the flight control team during the shuttle Discovery's final space voyage.
“I have been a space nerd my entire life, he said. “I love my job.
On Monday, Miles visited Whittier Elementary School to speak to students about the space program. His mother, Colleen Miles, teaches physical education at the Wheaton school and is using the shuttle launch to get students excited about exercising. The students are combining the miles they run during their physical education classes to see if they can accumulate the 1,231 miles between Whittier and Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“It brings to life what they're doing, Colleen Miles said, adding students have run about 958 miles so far.
Luke Miles knows how influential those types of connections can be. He credits his second-grade teacher with fueling his love of science and space.
“He was a giant space aficionado and he did space stuff in the classroom all the time, Miles recalled. “I have been hooked on space ever since.
On Monday morning, Miles got plenty of oohs and aahs from Whittier third-graders when he showed photographs of the Earth from the shuttle's cockpit. In space, it only takes two minutes for the shuttle to fly from Wheaton to Miles' home in Houston, he said.
The children especially were interested in the samples of “space food Miles brought with him. Responding to one girl's question, he said there's no ice cream on the space shuttle.
As a systems instructor with United Space Alliance, Miles shows astronauts how to use hundreds of switches and circuit breakers on the space shuttle.
“The space shuttle was designed by engineers in the 1970s, not pilots, he said. “So there are some things that function, but they are not how a pilot would have designed them.
During one memorable morning at work, the first crew Miles helped train sent him an e-mail from space.
“That will be hard to top, he said.