Two Georgia Tech alumni — Douglas Wheelock, MS AE 92, and Alan G. Poindexter, AE 86 — were chosen by NASA to fly aboard future space shuttle missions.

Wheelock, an Army colonel, will serve as a mission specialist aboard STS-120 delivering an Italian-built Node 2 connecting module to the International Space Station. Poindexter, a Navy commander, will pilot STS-122 and deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory to the space station.

Wheelock, of Seabrook, Texas, served as an experimental test pilot at the Army Aviation Technical Test Center before reporting to astronaut candidate training in 1998. In 2005, he served a stint at the cosmonaut training facility in Russia, where he supported the training, logistic and administrative needs of NASA astronauts preparing for missions aboard the space station.

Poindexter, of League City, Texas, served two deployments as a fighter pilot during Operations Desert Storm and Southern Watch. He has logged more than 3,500 hours and 450 carrier landings and has flown more than 30 different types of aircraft. The shuttle mission will be his first space flight.