INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- An astronaut who was born in Inglewood and educated in Anaheim will embark on his first journey into space aboard the space shuttle Discovery in February, it was announced Wednesday.
Joseph Acaba, 41, was selected to be a mission specialist on the Discovery's upcoming mission to the International Space Station.
Acaba will perform two of the mission's four spacewalks during the 14-day flight. The shuttle will deliver the fourth and final set of solar array wings to complete the space station's backbone, and will ferry U.S. astronaut Sandra Magnus back to earth after her three-month duty at the station.
Acaba graduated from Esperanza High School in Anaheim and earned a bachelor's degree in geology from the University of California-Santa Barbara in 1990.
He later earned a master's degree in geology from the University of Arizona and taught at Melbourne High School and Dunnellon Middle School in Florida.
The Discovery will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 12.
