INPERSON
RIGHT STUFF
North Allegheny grad
Warren ‘Woody’ Hoburg
selected to join NASA’s
newest astronaut class.
BY JENNIFER BROZAK
14 724.942.0940 TO ADVERTISE | North Allegheny
A
s a private pilot with extensive
search-and-rescue experience,
North Allegheny native Warren
“Woody” Hoburg has flown on
plenty of perilous missions.
Now he is training for an entirely new
frontier—space.
A 2004 graduate of North Allegheny
High School, Hoburg is one of 12
astronaut candidates chosen for NASA’s
newest astronaut class. The 2017 class,
which includes seven men and five
women, were selected from 18,300
applicants, the largest pool of applicants
in the history of NASA.
Hoburg, an assistant professor of
Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT,
reported to Houston in August and
will spend the next two years training
for space flight. He says that the idea of
becoming an astronaut was always in
the back of his mind, but other interests
prevailed—at first.
“If you had asked me when I was
younger if I would like to be an astronaut,
I would have said, ‘Someday,’” explains
Hoburg, speaking by phone from
Houston. “I never had my heart set on it,
because I had so many other interests and
because the odds are so small.”
Still, his journey to space flight began
when he was just a teenager, building
model rockets in his family’s kitchen. He
credits both family and the school district
with encouraging his drive.
“I was incredibly lucky to grow up with
a supportive family, and with parents who