LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — Big dreams can take you far: a truth Lake-area native Col. Michael S.Hopkins knows well, as he recently completed a spacewalk to repair the International Space Station (ISS). Hopkins was the valedictorian of the School of the Osage class of 1987 and is a NASA Flight Engineer.
Read about Hopkins' spacewalk.
Born in Lebanon, Mo., Hopkins grew up on a cattle and hog farm outside of Richland. He attended school in Richland, and transferred to the School of the Osage in junior high, where he was a football star and an academic whiz. He went on to play football at the University of Illinois, where he was an All-American.
Hopkins mother, Barbara Duffy, said Mike started talking about being an astronaut in high school. Growing up he was involved in many different sports and Boy Scouts. “He was like any other kid, trying out in his mind all the different avenues he could take,” Duffy added. “He used to love animals and I thought for sure he would grow up to be a veterinarian.” He had a well-rounded upbringing, learning about hard work with all the chores that have to be done on a family farm. “Mike was always very determined at whatever he set his mind to achieve. As he got older he became very goal-oriented and he worked hard to reach those goals. Even when the rocket ride was just a dream, I always believed he could do it if he wanted to,” she said.
Wing walker to space walker
One could say that flying and courage was in Mike Hopkins’ blood: his dad was an A4 Marine Corps Pilot and his grandfather had his airplane mechanic’s license by the age of 16. In the 1930’s, Hopkins’ grandfather was a Barn Stormer, flying to state fairs in Iowa, Kansas and Missouri where he performed brave stunts as a wing walker. “Mike’s dad always had an interest in flying, and there was an increased aspect of excitement with being an astronaut,” Duffy said. “My dad loved heights. How anyone could get out and walk around on the wing of an airplane is beyond my comprehension. And now look at his grandson—out there walking around as high as you can get, going 17,000 mph!” Duffy said, marveling at her son’s courageous Saturday spacewalk.
“This is one of those fantastic things where you’re so delighted that they get to live out their dream. That is what everyone mom wants for their child,” she said. “Mike always said that the important thing to do is to find something that you are passionate about and pursue that, and if it leads to something else, then that is great, and if it doesn’t, then you will at least be happy doing what you have chosen.”
Duffy taught a class for gifted students at the School of the Osage where she told her students “the sky is the limit.” In Hopkins case, it was a little further than that.
In an interview from space, Hopkins said, “When I was a kid I watched the shuttle launch four or five times a year and I watched the astronauts do their jobs on the space shuttle and outside the space shuttle. And man, that just looked exciting to me and I thought, ‘Boy, I sure would like to do that.’”
Launching into his dreams
Hopkins was the first to be chosen from a 14-member class of astronauts for an ISS mission. He launched at 3:58 on Sept. 25 aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on NASA’s Expedition 37 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Hopkins’ mother along with his wife Julie Stutz Hopkins traveled to Russia watch the liftoff.
Hopkins served as the flight engineer on the Soyuz during its flight to the ISS and monitored flight systems. He joined Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryzansky as the second installment of crew members for ISS Expedition 37, and they were welcomed to the space station by Expedition 37 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos, Karen Nyberg of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency. Those three crewmates had been aboard the space station since this May, and they returned in mid-November. Hopkins and his crewmates have begun Expedition 38 and will remain on the ISS until March 2014.
In an interview from space, Hopkins said he would be on the space station for six months, primarily performing more than 200 science experiments ranging from human research to biology to physics, as well as engineering demonstrations. The astronauts also have to maintain the space station. “Things break, just like anybody’s house,” Hopkins said. “So we have to be ready and prepared to fix those when that happens.”
Hopkins talks to his family via a video tele-conference link once a week and he has an IP phone with the capability of calling anyone daily if necessary.
School of the Osage
Several hundred people watched the launch and cheered their fellow alumni from the School of the Osage. Astronaut and Hopkins’ good friend Scott Tingle attended the liftoff celebration to speak to the students about the event.
"He's a true American hero," Tingle said of Hopkins. “The mission and the partnership with Russia are very significant. Our country's space program is in a period of change and transition, and 16 international partners have been involved with building and maintaining the ISS," he added.
"Mike is my best friend and he has the most integrity of anybody I know. He's smart and he's engaged in what he does. He carries not only the hopes and dreams of our astronaut team but of all Americans. He was the right choice to be the first from our class to be chosen."
Dream big
Hopkins, speaking to School of the Osage students, said, "I started the journey to space flight where you are sitting right now. Thank you—to you all." Tingle and Hopkins’ overall message to the students was to “dream big.”
The students watched as Hopkins anchored to the space station and walked through the portal to board it and greet his fellow astronauts. “He gave the School of the Osage a shout-out; that was an inspiration to our students,” said Osage High School Principal Mike Williams. “He said in high school he wanted to be an astronaut, and anyone who met Mike believed, ‘This guy is going to do it.’”
“His is a story of perseverance. He didn’t get into the astronaut program the first time he applied. It was coming to a point where he had to make a career choice, and he made one last-ditch effort, saying if he didn’t make it he would take it as a sign to go into something else,” Williams said. “What he has done for our school is phenomenal. I can see an excitement and pride in our students that Mike walked the same hallways as they do.”
Hopkins called Williams a week after the launch, from space. “I said to Mike, ‘I know where you’re at, but where are you?’” To which Hopkins replied, “I am flying over Australia right now.”
“To get a call from an astronaut on an International Space Station is a bit surreal,” Williams said. School of the Osage Head Football Coach Dan Henderson presented Col. Hopkins with an Indians football jersey and the school expects he will wear it during a video conference scheduled on Friday, Feb. 28.
NASA television coverage of Tuesday's spacewalk will begin at 6:15 a.m. EST. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 7:10 a.m.
Hopkins' time on the ISS can be monitored at www.nasa.gov or on Twitter @AstroIllini.
