Noted Queen’s alumnus returns to Kingston area – for about 6 minutes

One of Queen’s University’s most notable alumni returned to Kingston last night, if only for a few minutes – and the visit was captured on camera by fellow alumna Sue Bates.

The photo, taken at about 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 21st, from downtown Kingston, captured Commander Andrew Jay “Drew” Feustel, who earned a Ph.D in Geological Sciences from Queen’s University in 1995. Commander Feustel had only a fleeting 6-minute visit over the Limestone City as he was on-board the International Space Station at the time, circling the globe at about 27,600 km per hour and at an altitude of just over 400km as part of Expedition 56, of which he is the commanding officer.

This is Feustel’s third trip to space. He boarded Soyuz MS-08 on March 21st, 2018, docking with the International Space Station two days later. He initially served as the ISS Expedition 55’s flight engineer, then taking over the International Space Station commander role for Expedition 56. Feustel’s diverse tasks while on the International Space Station have included an EVA (extra-vehicular activity) of over 6 hours to install wireless communications equipment and cameras, as well as to replace aging hoses from the station’s cooling systems. He is expected to remain on board the ISS until October 2018.

According to NASA’s Spot The Station, the next time the International Space Station will be visible from Kingston, weather permitting, is tonight, Sunday July 22nd from about 10:13pm to 10:19 p.m.