The school's Steve Schultz is also on the expedition, and says Earhart's legacy looms large at the school.

Her pioneering spirit is, we like to say, is really part of our culture, part of the Boilermaker spirit.

And according to Purdue's Steve Schultz, her influence stretches even further than our atmosphere.

She laid the foundation as an advisor to the aeronautical engineering program that paved the way for the likes of Neil Armstrong and other members of our cradle of astronauts.

So let's dive into the evidence that has been uncovered so far.

Sure.

We are building our efforts on prior work by, principally by a group called TIGHR, which stands for The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, an organization founded and led by someone named Rick Gillespie, based in Wilmington, Delaware.

They got a clue in the late 1980s.

They were already a, a nonprofit that specialized in finding and identifying lost aircraft.

But they got a clue from a couple of gentlemen in Florida who suggested that a new theory might be looked at.

The prevailing theories of what happened to Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were, of course, the official line, which is the, let's just call it the crash-and-sink theory.

What does it mean to you to have two other Boilermakers on this trip with you?