Building a 21-foot-tall model rocket was certainly a sign that Woody Hoburg was destined for great things.

So it’s no surprise that Dr. Warren “Woody” Hoburg, a 2004 North Allegheny graduate, will be one of four astronauts in NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Mission to spend six months aboard the International Space Station. He’s tentatively set to blast off Feb. 26.

It’s sixth rotation to the space station with SpaceX — hence, Crew-6, and the 69th expedition to the space station overall.

Crew-6 will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. As a pilot, Woody will be responsible for spacecraft systems and performance. Aboard the station, he will serve as an Expedition 69 flight engineer.

NASA selected Hoburg to join the 2017 astronaut candidate class. After completing the initial, two-year training, he became eligible for missions.

“I actually thought I wasn’t experienced enough and didn’t have the credentials I needed to actually become an astronaut,” the NA grad said in a recent NASA-led interview.

Hoburg earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. He was leading a research group at MIT at the time of his selection, according to his NASA biography. He is an instrument-rated commercial pilot in single-engine and multi-engine airplanes.

He is also an avid climber and mountaineer.

He took summers off from grad school to work search and rescue at Yosemite. There he learned to deal with the unexpected, adapt and overcome — a tool for space life.

“When we go do things and challenge ourselves in that way, we will learn new things that will benefit us,” he said.

Hoburg, 37, and his brother Russ, 35, attended North Allegheny while living in Marshall Township. Russ Hoburg said his brother built model rockets when they were younger, and he found his brother taking modeling to the “next level.”

Woody Hoburg said he once built a 21-foot-tall model rocket that is stored in his parents’ barn in New Hampshire, where they retired.

Russ Hoburg, a chemistry teacher at Upper St. Clair High School, said his brother is well-suited and well-qualified to be an astronaut. The mission is about teamwork, and Woody is a good fit, said Russ Hoburg, who is attending the launch with their mom, Peggy.

“Our parents were always extremely supportive of us following our passions,” Russ Hoburg said.

Sadly, their dad Jim passed away this past fall, so the timing of Woody Hoburg going up into space is “sort of poetic,” his brother said.

Russ Hoburg, of Marshall Township, is head coach for the NA girls high school volleyball team, which won its sixth consecutive PIAA championship last fall. Woody Hoburg is going to take one of their winning gold medals aboard the SpaceX capsule, known as the Space Dragon, and a No. 6 NA volleyball jersey, Russ Hoburg said.

The astronaut also invited his former NA teachers, Jack Kernion and Sharon Volpe to attend the launch. Volpe will be heading there with her husband.

“I’m so excited. I’m telling everyone I know,” Volpe said.

She taught Woody Hoburg AP Calculus and recalls him not taking any notes during his first days of her highly challenging class. She told him that he wouldn’t pass if he didn’t take notes.

“It didn’t take me long to realize he did not need to take notes,” she said.

While most students fill up notebooks of calculus, she said Hoburg maybe had about a page or two of notes all year.

Volpe, of McCandless, said Woody is “funny, smart and caring.”

North Allegheny can boast a second former student working on the mission.

Ashrith Balakumar, formerly of Franklin Park and a 2013 NA grad, is a lead avionics engineer now based in Hawthorne, Calif., working with SpaceX.

Balakumar will serve as one of the SpaceX mission directors, leading the mission control team at SpaceX in Hawthorne, according to NA spokesperson Brandi Smith. He and his team will operate the SpaceX Dragon Capsule that will carry Hoburg and this team to and from the space station.

This spring, North Allegheny will host an educational downlink from Expedition 69 from the International Space Station. All students across the school district will have the opportunity to watch the downlink, according to Smith.

Woody Hoburg said it’s funny how things fall into place.

“Little decisions you make in life to get you to where you are going,” Woody said.

“I’m an engineer. I’m a pilot. I’m a climber and I’m now a NASA astronaut.”

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