Special Report: Austin Astronaut

Tim Kopra of Austin is a history making astronaut who recently became the first person to twitter in space. He also will be a part of the last space shuttle mission in 2010.

Tim Kopra was a mission specialist on the shuttle mission last summer. He is a former McCallum High Knight who grew up in northwest Austin.

“As I got to be a teen I'd go to Barton Springs and Zilker Park,” recalled Kopra.

Now he is loving life in orbit, flying up to the International Space Station on Endevour.

“The shuttle ride up was great, from sensations it was mild, it felt like someone cranked up the G-meter to 3, but it's the mental aspect of being in a rocket and into space that was pretty traumatic,” Kopra said.

Tim was in orbit some 200 miles above the Earth for about 2 months, most of that time on the International Space Station.

“We spent our time working on experiments, maintaining things and our bodies by working out sleeping, eating meals together as a group,” explained Kopra.

“It's a experience that difficult to translate into words but the fact that you recognize you're outside the station and you can look down on your planet and you can look out into space, it's a dramatic experience.

“It's unbelievable. You can't describe how beautiful it is to look out the window. The fact we're in a space ship going around the planet every 90 minutes, it's not intuitive you can see it but it takes a while for that to soak in.”

He also snapped pictures of his hometown. He grabbed pictures of Lake Travis, Congress Avenue, and Austin from space.

Kopra also had advice for current students.

“Not many people are going to be astronauts but there are a lot of goals young people can set for themselves,” said Kopra. “My recommendation is dream big and go for it. Because it really comes down to hard work and being dedicated be it doctor, lawyer astronaut, with hard work there isn't anything you can't do.”

Hard work has paid off for Kopra. Not long after he returned to earth he was chosen to be part of the crew for the last space shuttle mission before the shuttle program is cancelled.

“It's a big deal I think,” said Kopra. “We're changing the program from getting to the space station thru either the shuttle or Russian Soyuz and being re-supplied by the vehicles on the Russian and European side to being supported solely by outside agencies, so it’s a big change.”