Shortly after Charlie Armstrong landed a job at NASA, he started giving back to Missouri State University.
“When I was a student, I saw money going to athletics and it was hard to get good lab equipment. I decided, ‘When I graduate, I’m going to give money to the physics department and the math department,’ and that’s what I did,” Armstrong said.
Throughout the years, Armstrong has continued to give back financially and with the gift of time. He has served on the Physics, Astronomy, and Material Sciences (PAMS) Advisory Board since its inception. He is also a member of The Founders Club.
His generosity continues as Armstrong has established two estate gifts for the university: An endowment for the Baker Observatory and an astronomy professorship.
The Charles H. Armstrong Family Endowed Baker Observatory Program Fund was established by Charlie and his wife Karen.
“The Baker Observatory has always been high on my list of things that I wish we had more funding to improve and so I thought, ‘I won’t be using the money when I die, so give some to the Baker Observatory.’ It’s a wonderful facility. I don’t know if it’s the best observatory in the Midwest, but it’s in the top three,” Armstrong said.
In fact, he was on the ground floor of the observatory. When he was a student and the Bakers donated the land, Armstrong helped set the first posts in the ground for the Celestron telescopes.
Prior to the Baker Observatory, they would haul the telescopes to Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, set up in the parking lot, and spend the night gazing at the stars.
“Having the Baker Observatory was really a boon because we could take the telescopes out there,” Armstrong said. “One of the things we’ve wanted out there for years and years is classroom space. That’s one of the number one funding priorities – classroom space.”
The astronomy professorship stems from his passion for astronomy, which was his minor.
“We’ve got a number of students that come to Missouri State because of our astronomy program,” he said. “Having additional resources to fund astronomy faculty is important, and this will make sure it is always funded because it’s endowed.”
Armstrong graduated in 1979 with a double major in math and physics and a minor in astronomy. After graduation, he earned his master’s degree in space physics from University of Houston and then joined NASA.
NASA
The first half of his career, Armstrong trained astronauts to do space walks or extra-vehicular activity (EVA), and also supported mission control.
“We basically did everything associated with the EVA except for actually doing it ourselves. That’s because we had astronauts for that. We had to pretty much invent EVA as it went along in the space shuttle program to become the very robust EVA capability we now have,” he said.
The second part of his career, Armstrong tried to get big projects off the ground with marginal success, “because we’d start a program and then it would get canceled. The Orbital Space Plane was one of those. It was going to be a space station taxi. Right after that program started, we lost Columbia.”
Armstrong participated in the recovery effort of Columbia, which was both rewarding and heart wrenching.
“We lost people we knew. After Columbia, it was determined that the space shuttle’s days were numbered. Once the assembly of the International Space Station was completed, shuttle would no longer fly,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong went on to help “found” the Orion Program from the ashes of the Orbital Space Plane. Orion is set to launch atop its launch vehicle, the Space Launch System, at the end of August or early September. Orion along with the Space Launch System will take us back to the moon, he said.
He enjoyed a 35-year career with NASA and retired in 2014.
In 2019, he snagged a fabulous job as resident astronomer for Viking Cruises. This Bear travels the world as a lecturer on the ocean ships. One of the ships is even named for the Orion Program.
Even though he lived in Houston for most of his life, Armstrong kept close ties to his alma mater.
A LOVE FOR MSU
One of the things that led Armstrong to Missouri State is also the reason he stayed engaged with it: great professors and strong relationships.
In high school, Armstrong was in advanced math and wanted to take an accelerated math course at Drury University, but he was not available the day he had to test in.
“The guy who ran the program was like, ‘Well, too bad,’” Armstrong said.
Armstrong was a member of Ozark Amateur Astronomy Club and would hang out in Temple Hall and in the physics department. Armstrong explained his problem to Dr. Larry Banks, who was the head of MSU’s physics department. Dr. Banks called Dr. Alex Cramer in the math department and they let him take Calculus 1, if he received a pass from Springfield Public Schools.
After his senior year, he received MSU’s Regent’s scholarship and thrived.
The close relationships he built with professors left a mark on him, and Armstrong is leaving his mark on Missouri State.
“We kept in contact forever and ever and ever, and whenever I came home to visit the folks, I’d go see them even after they retired,” Armstrong said. “The thing that was beautiful about SMS back then, and today I believe is still true, is the fact that there is tremendous interaction between the faculty and the students. I just don’t think that’s an experience you can beat. It’s a small college experience at a large university.”
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