Richard M. Linnehan
- STS -78 (1996)
- STS -90 ( 1998)
- STS- 109 (2002)
- STS- 123 (2008)
Richard Michael Linnehan ( born September 19, 1957 in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA) is an American astronaut.
Linnehan 1980 he received a bachelor's degree in animal biology and microbiology from the University of New Hampshire. In 1985 he received his doctorate in veterinary medicine at Ohio State University. He then worked as a veterinarian, among other things for the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore and the Johns Hopkins University. In 1989, Linnehan the U.S. Navy and worked for the Marine Mammal Program of the U.S. Navy in San Diego, California.
Astronauts activity
Linnehan was chosen in March 1992 by NASA as an astronaut candidate and subsequently trained at the Johnson Space Center for one year mission specialist on shuttle flights. He then worked in the software department in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory ( SAIL) and in the development department for payload and future shuttle missions.
STS -78
On his first mission as a mission specialist Linnehan flew on 20 June 1996 with the space shuttle Columbia (STS -78 ) to the hitherto longest flight of a space shuttle (16d 21h 48min ). Task were microgravity experiments in the Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS ), which were needed as a basis for future experiments on the International Space Station (ISS).
STS -90
Two years later, in April 1998, he participated aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on its next Spacelab mission STS -90. The Neurolab 16-day mission served mainly the study of the effects of weightlessness on the brain and nervous system.
STS -109
On 1 March 2002 Linnehan started again with the Space Shuttle Columbia on the fourth servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope. This Hubble improved solar panels, the new camera 's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS ) and a cooling device for the Near Infrared Camara and Multi- Object Spectrometer ( NICMOS ) was treated with a new power control unit equipped. This Linnehan undertook with his colleague John Grunsfeld three of the five spacewalks and spent together over 21 hours outside the space shuttle.
STS -123
Linnehan belonged to the crew of STS- 123. The Space Shuttle Endeavour drilled in March 2008, the logistics module ELM -PS, which is part of the Japanese Kibo module and the Canadian Dextre robot hand to the International Space Station.