Dr. Robert Satcher, assistant professor at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, will become the first orthopedic surgeon to orbit the earth when he ventures into outer space this month.

Satcher will travel in the space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station on Nov. 16. While aboard the shuttle, the surgeon and bone cancer specialist will conduct experiments monitoring changes in the bone formation of mice.

According to Satcher’s longtime friend and Feinberg colleague Michael Schafer, Satcher has had a life-long fascination with space.

Schafer recalled listening to Satcher speak to a group of elementary school students in Oak Park, Ill., last spring about his space training.

“He told the kids about when he was young, and would lie in the grass look up at stars,” Schafer said. “He told them to set their goals high, because if he had that opportunity certainly they did too.”

Schafer said he spoke with Satcher on the phone this week, prior to Satcher’s pre-departure quarantine.

“He didn’t sound nervous,” Schafer said, “He feels that they’ve trained well and are ready to do whatever he needs to do.”

Satcher’s training began when he was accepted into the NASA program in 2004.

He will be the third astronaut associated with NU to go to space. Schafer said Satcher is bringing an NU flag and cap with him, along with Chicago Cubs and White Sox paraphernalia, to represent his hometown.

“He is literally going to carry the NU name into space,” Schafer said. “I think it shows the quality of people we have as members of the faculty at Feinberg. We attract and retain the best and the brightest and Bobby is a good example of that.”