Dr andrew thomas biography astronaut

In , Dr. Thomas was named manager of Lockheed's Flight Sciences Division and directed the technical efforts in vehicle aerodynamics, flight controls and propulsion systems that supported the company's fleet of production aircraft. This NASA-sponsored research included scientific investigations, conducted in the laboratory and in low gravity on NASA's KC aircraft, as well as technology studies to support the development of the space flight hardware for future Shuttle missions.

In August , following one year of training, he was appointed a member of the astronaut corp and was qualified for assignment as a mission specialist on Space Shuttle flight crews. While awaiting space flight assignment, Dr. In June , Dr. Thomas was named as payload commander for STS and flew his first flight in space on Endeavour in May He is in training for the STS mission, targeted for launch in STS was a day mission during which the crew deployed two satellites, tested a large inflatable space structure on orbit and conducted a variety of scientific experiments in a Spacehab laboratory module carried in Endeavour's payload bay.

The flight was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on May 19, and completed orbits nautical miles above the Earth while traveling 4. On January 22, , Dr. The first was Mir 19, where he was in charge of the Russian crew that replaced Norm Thagard and his Mir cosmonaut crewmates. Additionally, Solovyev was the commander of the Mir mission, which lasted from August 5, , until February 19, Foale's mission began with the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on May 15, , and ended when he returned to Earth on October 6, Surprisingly, Thomas and Commander Solovyev were unable to get Thomas into his suit.

Two days of discussions on the ground and some re-tailoring of the suit by Solovyev took place before the Shuttle-Mir managers, and Thomas himself, became satisfied that all was safe to proceed. After four days docked to Mir, Endeavour readied for its return to Earth. For Thomas, "This was a moment of mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was sorry to see my colleagues leave; but on the other [hand], it meant that I was now able to get on with the mission.

In sunlight, Endeavour shone brilliant white. In Earth-shadow, plumes of flame from the maneuvering jets lit up the solar arrays of the station. Andy Thomas made his home in the Priroda module. He found the bag containing his books, music recordings, stationery and art supplies, and personal hygiene items. He wanted to dive deeply into his scientific experiments.

Accompanying the two cosmonauts was French researcher Leopold Eyharts, who would stay for the three weeks of handover and then return to Earth with the Mir crew.

Dr andrew thomas biography astronaut

Thomas watched their approaching capsule. After checking the integrity of all the seals between the vehicles, they opened the hatch and welcomed the new crew aboard. Thomas later wrote, "It was strange to see them all again here in orbit," because he had not seen them since he left Star City for Houston early in the previous December.

Budarin had flown to Mir with his Mir crewmate, the same Anatoly Solovyev he was now meeting again in space. Mir astronaut Norm Thagard and his Russian crewmates back to Earth. While the six crewmembers were onboard, Mir showed its erratic side when a software glitch in an onboard computer placed the station into free drift. Having two crews onboard Mir for three weeks limited workspace and stowage space.

Thomas would later say that this was the hardest part of his stay on Mir, "when we had a lot of people aboard and it was very crowded. There is a lot of joy and they do not complain about their modest housing. The two cosmonauts and the French spationaute departed Mir in their Soyuz capsule, and they made a safe landing in Kazakhstan during a blizzard.

I became very comfortable onboard the station, and at no point did I feel like I needed to leave. It became a very sort of comfortable, easy lifestyle in some ways. Thomas began his complement of science activities, which would focus on 27 studies in the areas of advanced technology, Earth sciences, human life sciences, microgravity research, and International Space Station risk mitigation.

His investigations would conclude some experiments started on the six previous U. One of the first experiments he activated was an X-ray detector device, designed to gather information on the background cosmic radiation aboard the station. He started several experiments, including the astroculture unit, which provided a controlled environment chamber to support plant growth in space.

He spent much time ensuring that the Biotechnology System Co-culture Experiment was rotating as expected and that the proper doses of media and nutrients were reaching the reactor chamber. And, he soon began collecting urine samples to support the Renal Stone Risk Assessment Experiment, which studied the risk of kidney stone formation due to a sudden absorption of calcium by the body during spaceflight.

In a media interview in early February , Thomas spoke about his life on Mir. There had been questions in the press about his Russian language abilities, especially pertaining to social conversations. Thomas agreed on the importance of socializing, "because we spend a lot of time together in a confined space, not just working as professionals but around the dinner table.

We joke and kid around. Thomas also said that the Russian space station was "proving to be a very interesting place to live and work [in]. If you want to have fun, zero gravity is a great place to do it. Tools and personal equipment. Your toothbrush. Your comb. I mean, I have a very stimulating workday every day, with a lot of challenging activities.

But, each day tends to roll into the next and there comes a certain monotony. You have to use your own resources to make the life interesting, to keep your motivation going. So, there are great challenges of taking on a mission like this. For Thomas, the biggest issue on Mir was the shortage of stowage space. To Thomas, weightlessness felt like a "perfectly natural thing.

In , the Base Block, perched atop a Russian Proton rocket, had launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin what was planned to be five years in Earth orbit. Now, in , the Mir space station was composed of eight permanent modules. All but the punctured Spektr were habitable. Also on February 20, the crew boarded the Soyuz capsule and backed away from Mir to free the Kvant-1 port for the redocking of the Progress capsule, which had been filled with trash and placed in a parking orbit on January Instead of doing a fly-around as other crews had done, they held steady while ground controllers rotated Mir.

Back onboard Mir, the crew worked on life support systems, mainly atmospheric systems, such as oxygen generators, a carbon dioxide scrubber, and a pressure valve. On February 23, the Progress vehicle was redocked, mainly using the Kurs automated system but testing the manual tele-operated remote unit docking system that had posed serious problems to recent expeditions.

Three days later, the crew got a much worse surprise. Smoke started issuing from a device that removed contaminants from the air in the Kvant-1 module. Thomas was exercising on the treadmill in Kristall at the time. When he finished, he floated past the Base Block and was alarmed to see thick smoke drifting throughout the cabin. Evidently, switches on the device had been misconfigured.

It had overheated, causing a fire within the unit, and fumes were being blown into the cabin. When Commander Musabayev finally noticed the smoke, he quickly turned off the apparatus. Fortunately, this contained the fire within the unit. The fire was allowed to burn itself out, and extinguishers were not needed. Regardless, the cloud of smoke soon spread throughout the entire space station, and smoke and odor could be noticed in all the modules.

Of further concern was the fact that the fire alarm system had failed to generate an alarm despite the obvious and thick smoke. His abilities are varied and include designing wine labels for the A. As a child, growing up in Fullarton , Adelaide , Thomas was fascinated by space. His father has described how he started building model rockets from cardboard and plastics.

By he was the organisation's principal aerodynamic scientist. In August , following one year of training, he was appointed a member of the NASA Astronaut Corps and was qualified for an assignment as a mission specialist on Space Shuttle flight crews. Although Paul D. Scully-Power had entered orbit as an oceanographer in , Thomas was the first Australia-born professional astronaut to enter space.

Thomas completed his fourth space flight on STS and has logged over days in space. NASA officially announced Thomas' retirement on 20 June , which took effect on 1 March , after 22 years with the space agency. STS was a mission during which the crew deployed two satellites, tested a large inflatable space structure in orbit and conducted a variety of scientific experiments in a Spacehab laboratory module carried in Endeavour's payload bay.

The flight was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on 19 May and completed orbits nautical miles km above the Earth while traveling 4. He served aboard Mir as flight engineer 2 and returned to Earth with the crew of STS aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on 12 June , completing days in space and 2, orbits of Earth. Mission accomplishments included the delivery of the Expedition 2 crew and logistics resupply with the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module , and then the return to Earth of the Expedition 1 crew.

During the mission, Thomas performed an EVA of 6. The mission duration was hours and 49 minutes. His second spaceflight took place from January 22 to June 12, , as a payload specialist onboard the Russian Mir Orbital Complex. This mission lasted for an impressive duration of days, 15 hours, 12 minutes, and 9 seconds. The primary objective of this mission was to deliver the crew of the second long-duration expedition to the International Space Station and conduct various tasks on the station.

Thomas also participated in a spacewalk, lasting 6 hours and 21 minutes, during this mission.