Astronaut

Spring 2019

WSU Fight Song in space and time

Since the Washington State University Fight Song was composed and adopted in 1919, it has taken flight on a space shuttle, adapted in several musical styles, sung by John Candy in a movie, and taken on great meaning for the Cougar Nation.

Listen to the first known recording of the Fight Song (from 1934), the Fight Song broadcast to the Space Shuttle Challenger to honor astronaut and WSU alum John Fabian ’62, and watch “Tom Tuttle from Tacoma” belt out “Fight, fight, fight for Washington State” in the 1985 movie Volunteers.

Read the history of the fight song in “Fight, fight, fight…” still flying … » More …

Summer 2017

Space Cougs

Since the 1960s, engineers, biologists, and even historians who graduated from Washington State have contributed to the exploration of our solar system. You can read about a few of them below. If you know of other Cougs who have been involved in space exploration, please send their stories and we’ll include them here.

Thora Waters Halstead ’50

Space biologist

Microbiologist Thora Waters Halstead pioneered the field of space biology and her research now is a critical piece of NASA’s plans to send astronauts to Mars.

Waters, who earned her undergraduate degree at Washington State University in 1950, was a trailblazer at NASA … » More …