Navy Commander Bowen Will Take Flight in February

By ROBERT SEARS

COHASSET – Cohasset High School graduate Stephen G. Bowen is scheduled to rocket into space on the shuttle Atlantis next February.

The flight, Bowen’s first, will rendezvous with the International Space Station to deliver a pressurized unit and robotic arm for a Japanese experimental module known as "Kibo," which means hope.

Bowen, 43, a Navy commander, grew up in Cohasset and graduated from high school in 1982. He joined NASA in 2000 as a mission specialist, and will be part of a six-member crew of Atlantis.

Bowen lives in Houston with his wife and two children.

He is qualified to command nuclear submarines, and he is the first naval submarine officer to become an astronaut.

After graduating from Cohasset High, Bowen earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, and in 1993 he earned a degree in ocean engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bowen will be on the second of three flights carrying components to the Japanese laboratory.

The mission will include two space walks.

He returned to Cohasset four years ago and talked with students at the Deer Hill Elementary School telling them he was fan of science fiction novels and "Star Trek."

Bowen said it was astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong who sent him dreaming about the stars.

"I was in the Osgood School watching those guys in 1969 when they took their first steps on the moon," Bowen said. "We had real astronauts doing real things. I think that has much more of an effect than any science fiction could ever have."

Robert Sears may be reached at bsears@ledger.com.

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