Westport Man’s 3D Printing Skills Helped Stranded NASA Astronaut

The SouthCoast has global – and even cosmic – ties to a recent major space story.

NASA astronaut and Massachusetts' own Suni Williams spent months stuck aboard the International Space Station, but thanks to Westport native DC Collasius, she was never truly alone.

Williams, an experienced space traveler, missed the comforts of home – including her beloved dogs, so I decided to take a field trip down to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to chat with Collasius.

To keep the Needham native connected to Earth, Williams' family, Collasius and a team at WHOI worked together to send her a special surprise: 3D-printed mini replicas of her furry companions.

Williams’ sister, Dina Pandya, who also works in WHOI’s communications department, knows how much Suni adored her dogs. She teamed up with DunkWorks, WHOI’s rapid prototyping lab, to see if they could create something truly personal for the astronaut.

That’s where Collasius, the lead machinist at DunkWorks, stepped in.

Collasius and his team took on the challenge, using state-of-the-art 3D printing technology (Fortus 450mc) to produce highly-detailed, small-scale models of Williams' dogs, Gunner and Rotor.

The team didn’t stop there. The WHOI creative services team then meticulously hand-painted the models to ensure they looked just like her real-life pups.

The finished models were carefully packaged and sent to Florida, where they were loaded onto a resupply mission bound for the space station. Once they arrived, Williams was overjoyed.

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The lifelike replicas provided a comforting connection to home, giving her something familiar to hold onto while waiting to be rescued.

This wasn’t Collasius' first time creating something for an astronaut.

Previously, he had collaborated with NASA’s Loral O’Hara, who was a WHOI engineer prior to becoming an astronaut, on multiple deep-sea missions to design a 3D-printed model of Alvin, the famed deep-sea submersible. That model was also sent to space, symbolizing the link between Earth’s uncharted ocean depths and the vastness of space.

Finally, after nine months, Williams returned to Earth and was able to bring the 3D-printed dogs home with her, keeping them as cherished mementos of her journey.

For Collasius, who has dedicated 18 years to innovative projects at WHOI, this was yet another prime example of the power of 3D printing; not just for scientific advancement, but for creating meaningful emotional connections miles away from home.