Astronaut Warren 'Woody' Hoburg, a Pittsburgh-area native, to lead Terrible Towel twirl at Steelers game

Most know that Steelers fans and their Terrible Towels are a force to be reckoned with come game day.

But a certain Terrible Towel to be waved at Sunday’s Steelers-Cardinals game, and the man behind it, are quite actually out-of-this-world.

Astronaut Warren “Woody” Hoburg, 38, of Houston, Texas, but who grew up in Western Pennsylvania, will lead the pre-game Terrible Towel twirl with a towel he took into space.

Hoburg did a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station that landed in September. He was pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

“We had an opportunity to bring some personal mementos along with us, and one of the things I brought was a Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towel,” Hoburg said. “I’ve been a lifelong Steelers fan, and it was special to me to bring that Terrible Towel on board.”

Hoburg was born and raised in the North Hills and graduated from North Allegheny High School. He earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT, and got a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California-Berkeley.

“I’ve just always been passionate about things that fly; vehicles, rockets, airplanes, and also just that spirit of adventure,” Hoburg said. “I think that’s why we explore space and send humans to space, and send robots to space, is because we have that innate desire to explore.”

Hoburg was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class and he reported for duty that August, according to NASA. He was leading a research group at MIT at the time he was selected.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 completed the agency’s sixth commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station.

Hoburg’s first spacewalk was what he considered to be the most rewarding experience of his career. He, along with his crew, were also able to upgrade solar arrays on the International Space Station.

“That experience was extremely fulfilling and rewarding,” he said.

On Saturday, Hoburg and James Kenyon, director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center Director, toured CMU’s Robotics Institute. NASA Glenn Research, located in Cleveland, Ohio, conducts aeronautics and spaceflight research, development and testing in connection to the agency’s missions, according to NASA.

Hoburg note that Astrobotic, of Pittsburgh, is going to the moon with a mission to launch on Christmas Eve.

“And it’s going to bring along a rover that these students here at Carnegie Mellon designed and built,” Hoburg said.

Hoburg and Kenyon got to witness a simulation by students of a mission control — practicing for the day in a couple of months when they’re going to be driving the Iris Lunar Rover on the moon from Pittsburgh.

“It’s incredible — the energy and the excitement. But these (students) know what they’re doing,” Kenyon, a CMU alumni, said. “They’ve done their homework, they know the kinds of constraints that they need to deal with on the lunar surface; they’re working to simulate those conditions here.”

Saturday’s simulations were very similar to an operational, real-life experience, Kenyon said.

“The attention to detail is incredible,” he said.

CMU student Nikolai Stefanov, the Iris Mission Control lead, said the opportunity to meet Hoburg and Kenyon was incredible.

The Iris team is made up of students from all different majors across the university, Stefanov said.

“We work very well with NASA Glenn (Research) and we just had a tour over to their facilities not too long ago,” Stefanov said. “So being able to meet the people behind all of that, it’s a great opportunity to be able to talk to them, hear what they say, show off what we’re doing here … it’s a prideful feeling.”