It would be no surprise if Captain Frederick Hauck's (A '62) advice to graduating seniors on commencement day were, "reach for the stars." A former Navy ROTC student, Hauck has spent much of his life doing just that as an astronaut for NASA.
Hauck, a California native, received a degree in physics from Tufts in 1962, and went to graduate school at MIT, where he received a master's degree in Nuclear Engineering in 1966, according to NASA. He attended Navy Flight School from 1966 to 1968, and served in the Navy for 10 years until 1978, when he was selected as an astronaut candidate.
According to NASA, he piloted America's seventh space shuttle flight in 1983. In 1984, he commanded the space shuttle Discovery in the first space salvage mission in history, orbiting the earth 127 times before landing. Two years later, he was appointed NASA Associate Administrator for External Relations. He then commanded Discovery on another mission, which was the first space flight after the explosion of the Challenger shuttle.
In 1989, Hauck was promoted to Director of the Navy Space Systems Division, where he stayed until 1990, when he left the military to become the President and COO of AXA Space, an insurance group that specializes in the risks of satellite launches. He retired in 2005. He has received the Tufts University Presidential Medal, Light on the Hill Award and Distinguished Alumnus Award.
"Hauck is a Tufts alumnus who has literally scaled amazing heights," University President Lawrence Bacow said in an e-mail to the Daily. "One of the most respected astronauts of all time, he is a member of the Astronaut Hall of Fame."
Overall, Hauck has been on hundreds of flights and logged over 5,500 flight hours, 436 of which were in space. He will receive an honorary doctorate of public service.
