Andy Thomas
Andrew Sydney Withiel "Andy" Thomas ( born December 18, 1951 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia ) is an American astronaut Australian origin. He is the only native of Australia Occupation Astronaut - already there for twelve years he flew a native of Sydney oceanographer Paul Scully -Power with STS -41 -G into space.
Thomas was born in Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia, where he spent his childhood and youth. After his graduation he received from St. Peter 's College in 1968, he went to the University of Adelaide and studied mechanical engineering. His bachelor he laid in 1973 with summa cum laude. He then continued his studies and received his doctorate five years later in Mechanical Engineering ( Dr. -Ing. ).
In his last year Thomas left Australia in 1977 and moved to the United States. He settled in the southeastern part of the country, in Georgia, down and began as a research scientist at the aircraft manufacturer Lockheed in Marietta. Three years later, he had already brought to the project manager of the aerodynamics department. Another three years later, the line of the Advanced Flight Sciences Department, he was assigned where you dealt with theoretical studies on issues of fluid and aerodynamics. The Flight Sciences Division of Lockheed he faced in 1987. There were sought technical solutions for the further development of the company's aircraft of the drives and the controller.
After twelve years at Lockheed, Dr. Thomas Location and employers. He moved to California in 1989 to work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL ) of NASA. A short time later, he was entrusted with the management of a program for materials science research in microgravity.
Astronauts activity
Thomas was already as a child and teenager fascinated by the space program. Nevertheless, the desire to become an astronaut was only latent. The ability to be an Australian astronaut, was non-existent as well. That changed with his arrival in the United States and he began to envision a chance to make his dream a reality. Since then, he also tried consciously to steer his career in that direction. That was also the reason why he accepted the position at JPL. At the time it was felt to have achieved enough, which could be crucial in an astronaut application. He also had been used once " a foot in the door ".
Thomas was introduced as one of 15 mission specialists with the 14th group of NASA astronauts end of March 1992. From a total of 2,054 applicants who met the formal selection criteria, 87 finalists had emerged. They were invited to the Johnson Space Center (JSC ) to Houston in Texas to testing, interviews and medical examinations in the autumn of 1991.
The 24-member group consisting of 4 pilots and 20 mission specialists ( including 5 from abroad), began in August 1992, the one-year basic training at JSC. After that, he was a member of the support team at Kennedy Space Center, the care of their fellow astronaut.
STS -77
In the summer of 1995, Thomas was erected for his first space flight. The STS -77 mission was conducted by the Space Shuttle Endeavour in May 1996 and was the fifth mission of the commercial Spacehab module. Therein, a dozen experiments in the fields of biology, electrical engineering and agriculture were carried out. Furthermore, the platform SPARTAN was exposed, which in turn was called the Inflatable Antenna Experiment ( IAE). This 14 million dollar IAE was an aluminum- coated plastic shell that by nitrogen gas in its actual form - was brought - a dish antenna. The ten-day company was the first flight, the (Consolidated Control Center CCC) was led from the start until the landing of the new control center in Houston.
STS -89
As Thomas came to his next nomination, is a story in itself: mid August 1996, NASA decided that astronaut Wendy Lawrence in September 1997 Mike Foale should regularly detach as a permanent guest on the Russian space station Mir. When her substitute David Wolf was appointed, who in January 1998 again its successor as the last Americans to Mir should take. A little later, Thomas was appointed substitute of Wolf. Wolf and Thomas traveled to Russia in January 1997 to the " Star City " in Moscow, to prepare for the long flight.
End of June 1997 then rammed an unmanned Progress cargo ship Mir station and added their heavy damage to. Although the outposts of the crew did not have to be evacuated, but the incident had consequences. Extensive repairs were required. This had an impact on the future crews, for now craftsmen were in demand. Together with the Russians came to NASA in August to the result to be replaced by Foale Wolf held by Lawrence. Two main reasons were given for this: Lawrence did not fit in the Russian Orlan spacesuit in order to help with extravehicular activities ( EVAs ) can. In addition, they have no EVA experience. David Wolf had the shuttle even not rely on his first flight in 1993, but at least he could produce around 150 hours of training in the water tank of the JSC. Therefore, NASA said in mid-October that Andy Thomas with STS -89 was to fly as the seventh and last American to me.
Thomas started with STS -89 end of January 1998 for his second spaceflight. Again, it was the orbiter Endeavour, which took him as a mission specialist on the Russian space station Mir. After five days, which was associated with the station of the orbiter, the STS -89 crew and was adopted Thomas back. For David Wolf took his place and returned after almost 130 days back home to Earth. Thomas remained as part of the Shuttle -Mir program in the function of a flight engineer aboard the next four months and worked with the Russian long-term crews of Soyuz TM -26 and Soyuz TM- 27th In June, he was picked up by STS -91 again. His 140 days ending flight was over. He has reported that the first day of the re- adaptation were very painful to gravity. When walking he had in the first few days the feeling that he would take part in a marathon, without having previously trained. It lasted several weeks until he had recovered his old condition again.
STS -102
For its third flight into orbit, Thomas prepared as of May 2000. Almost two weeks to complete the mission to the International Space Station ( ISS). STS -102 took place in March 2001 and was a crew exchange mission ISS Expedition 2 was brought to the ISS and back taken ISS Expedition 1 back to Earth. In addition to the logistics module Leonardo major equipment items were brought to the station. When I arrived, got the two American crew members of the ISS crew from fresh ( Helms and Voss ) to perform work on the module Destiny. Two days later followed by Thomas and his colleague Richards. During their six and a half hour outboard stay, which was the first for both, the two astronauts installed a platform for storing loads of Destiny and allied essential data cables.
STS -114
Before Thomas was set for his next space flight, he served from August 2001 as Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office at JSC. Two years later he was assigned to the crew of STS -114. Caused by the Columbia disaster in early 2003, the shuttle missions for two and a half years were suspended. Therefore, it could STS -114 break in the summer of 2005 in the direction of the ISS. Originally Thomas was not supposed to fly, because the crew and mission profile looked different. When the " Urbesatzung " was announced in August 2001, the start of November 2002 was provided. STS -114 was to be a pure logistics flight, which should bring the 7 crew to the International Space Station and 6 crew back to Earth. As STS -114 finally departed the end of July 2005 on the ISS, the crew changes had been deleted from the flight plan, and the test carried out in the past two and a half years, changes to the shuttle system in mind. The core crew remained unchanged, but for the three ISS guests moved Thomas with two colleagues after. This was very unexpected for him because Andy was the chief supervisor of the STS -107 families ten months before. The main task during his second visit to the ISS within four years was to coordinate the outboard work of his colleagues from the shuttle interior.
Private
Thomas, who (since 1986) has both the Australian and American citizen, is married to the astronaut Shannon Walker on April 15, 2005. The couple has no children.