WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Three Purdue alumni will be involved in a 2018 NASA mission to the International Space Station.

According to the university, first-time astronaut Scott Tingle will head to space in October. He'll be joined by veteran astronaut Drew Feustel aboard the ISS in March 2018.

Tingle and Feustel will be transported to the ISS by the Russian Soyuz spacecraft which launches from Kazakhstan.

(Feustel pictured on the left above, Tingle on the right)

In addition to representing the Boilermakers in space, a third alum, Gary Horlacher, will serve as lead fight director for the expedition. Horlacher is a 1989 graduate of Purdue's Interdisciplinary Engineering program (now the School of Engineering Education).

"This is a first. Two Boilermakers on an International Space Station mission together with a Boilermaker calling the shots as the lead flight director in Mission Control. I could not be more excited to work with Scott Tingle and Gary Horlacher (and many other Boilermakers around the agency) during such a dynamic time for human spaceflight. Boiler Up!," said Feustel.

(Pictured above: Gary Horlacher)

Tingle graduated from Purdue with a master's in mechanical engineering in 1988, specializing in fluid mechanics and propulsion. Feustel earned a bachelor's degree in solid earth sciences in 1989 and a master's in geophysics in 1991, both from Purdue.

Purdue has 23 alumni astronauts.