Donald A. Thomas
- STS -65 ( 1994)
- STS -70 ( 1995)
- STS -83 (1997)
- STS -94 (1997)
Donald Alan Thomas ( born May 6, 1955 in Cleveland, Ohio ) is a former American astronaut.
Thomas 1977, he received a bachelor's degree in physics from Case Western Reserve University in 1980 and a master's degree in 1982 and a Ph.D. in materials science from Cornell University.
Thomas 1982 began at the AT & T Bell Laboratories. He also taught physics at Trenton State College in New Jersey. In 1987 he moved to Lockheed Engineering and Sciences Company. Where he developed and verified materials for space projects. He was also responsible for the Microgravity Disturbances Experiment, an experiment that investigated the crystal growth in the mission STS -32.
Astronauts activity
After an unsuccessful bid for the twelfth astronaut group in January 1990 Thomas was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate with the 13th group. He was speaker connection ( CAPCOM ) for Shuttle missions STS -47, STS -52 and STS- 53rd From July 1999 to June 2000, he was Director of Operations at NASA the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Zvezdny Gorodok near Moscow.
STS -65
For the STS- 65 Thomas flew as mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Columbia on 8 July 1994 for the first time into space. Around seven dozen experiments in the fields of biology and materials science were during the 15-day Spacelab flight on the program. On July 23, the Columbia landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
STS -70
On 13 July 1995 Thomas began as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery on its second mission into space. Main task was exposing the relay satellite TDRS -G.
STS -83
On April 4, 1997 Thomas aboard the space shuttle Columbia into space. Payload was the Microgravity Science Laboratory ( MSL -1). Due to an issue with a fuel cell of the shuttle mission had to be shortened and the landing took place after nearly four days. NASA decided to repeat the mission three months later with the same crew.
STS -94
On 1 July 1997, the Columbia was launched again to the prematurely terminated the first attempt MSL - 1 mission. This time, the experiments in the Microgravity Science Laboratory could be carried out successfully. These included especially experiments to study the physical properties of the supercooled liquid mixtures and the combustion processes of solid and liquid materials, and for preparation of pure protein crystals.
ISS
Thomas was assigned as a member of the sixth long-term crew for the International Space Station (2002 /2003). However, for medical reasons, he could not fly. Most recently, he was responsible for experiments that were conducted on the ISS.
According to the NASA
In July 2007, Thomas resigned from NASA and was on 1 August 2007 Director of the Willard Hackerman Academy of Mathematics and Science at the Jess and Mildred College of Science and Mathematics at Towson University.
Private
Donald Thomas is married and has one child.