Loral O’Hara earned her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas and a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University before being selected for NASA’s 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class, the “Turtles.” She later served as the Astronaut Office’s Director of Operations in Star City, Russia, and launched to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz MS-24 in September 2023, serving 204 days as a flight engineer on Expedition 70, her first spaceflight, and even participated in a live Q&A with KU students before returning safely to Earth in April 2024, having traveled more than 86.5 million miles and completed 3,264 orbits of Earth. Before joining NASA, O’Hara spent eight years as a research engineer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, working on the deep-ocean submersible “Alvin” and the remotely operated vehicle “Jason.”

This event is presented in conjunction with the 2026-27 KU Reads: A Common Book Experience selection of Orbital, by Samantha Harvey.

From Lawrence to Low Earth Orbit: An Evening with Loral O’Hara