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Crawfordsville native and veteran astronaut Joe Allen and his colleague Janice Voss (a South Bend native) were on campus as part of the Experience Indiana Speakers Program, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. Allen, who grew up just blocks from the Wabash campus, has been a photographer all his life. He took this photo of a fellow Space Shuttle astronaut during a space walk. The photo ran on the cover of Time magazine, though Allen was disappointed when the photo credit read "Photo courtesy of NASA." Allen was the third astronaut ever to make an untethered space walk.

Joe Allen had very kind words for astronaut Janice Voss, who completed five Space Shuttle missions and is still active in the astronaut program. On Voss' fifth mission, the Space Shuttle used 3-D mapping technology to map more than 47 million square miles of the earth's surface over the course of 10 days.

Janice Voss, a Purdue undergraduate who earned her Ph.D. from MIT, flew on five Space Shuttle flights. When asked if she was scared to fly after the Challenger tragedy, she said, "Anybody who is not scared to be in space isn't smart enough to be an astronaut."

Earlier on Thursday, astronauts Janice Voss and Joe Allen had lunch with math and physics students and faculty. In that presentation, Voss talked about the physics behind the mission of her fifth Space Shuttle flight. That mission used three-dimensional mapping technology to map more than 47 million square miles of the earth's surface. Wabash students got to see some of the actual training materials used by Voss as she prepared for the flight. The visit by two of Indiana's NASA astronauts was funded by a gift from Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of the Experience Indiana Program.

Crawfordsville native Joe Allen has great affection and admiration for Janice Voss, who was born in South Bend, grew up in Rockford, Illinois, and graduated from Purdue. Allen said, "A solid Midwestern education can take you a very long way... and on many exciting adventures."

Henry Westphal, the son of Math Professor Chad Westphal, poses for a photograph with NASA astronauts Janice Voss and Joe Allen. Henry had his own "flight suit" with autographs from both Indiana legends.

It was truly a Homecoming for Joe Allen, who was greeted time and again by friends from Crawfordsville High School's Class of 1955. Allen was clearly excited to see so many old friends in his return to Crawfordsville. The two-time Shuttle astronaut grew up a few blocks from the Wabash campus and said, "I never knew there were girl babysitters when I was growing up. All of my babysitters were Wabash guys."

Joe Allen said he was a Boy Scout and made his first camera after reading an article in Boys Life magazine when he was 11. He's been an avid photographer all of his life, and he showed the audience many of his famous photographs. In this shot, Allen talks about a desert landing of one of his Shuttle flights.

Joe Allen got emotional when he talked about the tragedy of the Challenger mission when seven astronauts died shortly after liftoff. He said he had been involved in the selection process of many of the crew members for that mission. "I lost seven brothers and sisters that day," he said.

Tom Runge ’71, Director of Alumni and Parent Relations at Wabash, talks to Joe Allen at Thursday's lunch presentation. An hour earlier, Runge had given a Chapel Talk about his career as an Air Force fighter pilot.

Joe Allen and Janice Voss were guests of the Experience Indiana Speakers Program, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. Allen and Voss are among dozens of astronauts from Indiana; fully 10 percent of all NASA astronauts were either born or educated in Indiana. It's a fun fraternity, too. Allen recognized Wabash alum and long-time campus doctor Keith Baird ’56 several times on Thursday. Baird was the flight surgeon for three Apollo space missions, including Apollo 13, and was Allen's family doctor when he began at NASA. "Janice and I may be footnotes in the history of the space program," Allen said. "Keith Baird was one of the pioneers in those early Apollo flights."

Joe Allen's flight suits from one of his Space Shuttle missions.