Donald Pettit

• STS-113/Sojus TMA-1 (2002/ 2003)   ISS Expedition 6

• ISS Expedition 30
• ISS Expedition 31

Donald Roy "Don" Pettit ( born April 20, 1955 Silverton, Oregon, USA ) is an American astronaut.

Life

Pettit is from the West Coast of the United States. Born and raised he is in Silverton, a small town that lies about 30 kilometers east of the capital of the State of Oregon, Salem. After the Silverton Union High School ended in 1973, he went to Corvallis at Oregon State University. He studied at the College of Engineering in Chemical Engineering and in 1978 received a bachelor. He then enrolled at the University of Arizona in Tucson one. This gave him in 1983 a doctorate in chemical engineering.

After receiving his doctorate Pettit got a job as a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory ( LANL ). Robert Oppenheimer had the research institution founded in 1943 as the Los Alamos Laboratory under the name " Project Y" in life. The LANL is located in Los Alamos (New Mexico), reports to the U.S. Department of Energy and operated by the University of California. There Pettit led by basic research. In parabolic flight, he examined, for example, on behalf of NASA fluid shifts in microgravity or materials science tasks. He collected from the air gas samples of active volcanoes, studied so-called noctilucent clouds and worked on explosives for weapons. From 1990 he was involved in the preparations for the new objectives of NASA when he put together the techniques with the Synthesis Group of LANL that are required for the return to the Moon and Mars exploration. Three years later he was part of the team that worked on a redesign of the planned U.S. space station Freedom.

Astronauts activity

Pettit says the word explorers would describe him best. Ever since he could remember, he was fascinated by space. First, he really wanted to deal only with chemical issues when he began his studies. That changed with his preparations for his doctorate in Arizona. At this time he submitted his first application to the U.S. space agency. In March 1984, he was invited for the tenth astronaut group to Houston to Johnson Space Center (JSC ) in order to perform job interviews and to be medically examined. Also in April 1987 ( Group 12 ) and July 1994 ( group 15 ), he was one of the final candidates, but was not selected.

Pettit was finally presented with the 16th group of NASA astronauts in May 1996, the public, the largest group was formed with a thickness of 35 candidates since 1978. He was one of the total of 2432 candidates who met the formal selection criteria. It emerged 123 finalists that homed to the compulsory tests between October 1995 and February 1996 at the JSC.

In mid-August 1996, the 16th Group began its two-year basic training at JSC. After Pettit was a full-fledged mission specialist and in charge of the computer department of the Astronaut Office until its first flight appointment. Incidentally Pettit's office was not filled as a member of the scientific staff at LANL or is vacant. Officially, he is on leave for an indefinite period and still belongs to the EPE team (Energy and Process Engineering ) from Los Alamos.

His first mission as astronaut Pettit received in March 2001 when he was named to replace man for his colleague Donald Thomas. This was intended as a flight engineer of the sixth ISS Increment team, but was taken for medical reasons, four months before the start of the crew. Pettit took his place and started on 24 November 2002 with STS -113 to the ISS. Together with his commander Ken Bowersox - Bowersox and Pettit are not only colleagues, but live in Houston house to house - and Russian Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin lived and worked Pettit to beginning of May 2003 on board the space station. As a science officer, he was mainly responsible for the different experiments. He also served the ISS robotic arm. Although not planned, he got the opportunity to leave the ISS. Instead of Budarin Pettit left with Bowersox in January and April 2003 for two exits the station. Actually, the crew of STS -114 in March 2003 should be picked up again. In February, the space shuttle Columbia accident and then were exposed to all other Shuttle flights, has changed the further planning. On 4 May 2003, the three -man crew on Soyuz TMA-1 returned to Earth.

Pettit won the contract for his second flight in November 2007. He moved for Joan Higginbotham after as a mission specialist on STS -126, because this left NASA. The launch of STS -126 on 15 November 2008.

In October 2009, Pettit was nominated for an extended stay aboard the ISS. He worked as a flight engineer of Expeditions 30 and 31 between December 2011 and beginning of July 2012 on board the ISS.

Private

Pettit is married and has two children.