John D. Olivas
- STS- 117 (2007)
- STS- 128 (2009)
John Daniel " Danny" Olivas ( born May 25, 1966 in Los Angeles, California ) is a former American astronaut.
Life
Olivas was born in the district of North Hollywood Los Angeles, but he grew up in El Paso (Texas ). There he attended until 1984 Burges High School and began to study at the University of Texas. Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering, he received in 1989.
Immediately after his college graduation Olivas found a job at the Texas branch of the chemical company Dow Chemical. For five years he worked as an auditor material and supervised the loads on-site facilities. At the same time he continued his studies in mechanical engineering and earned in 1993 at the University of Houston his master.
1994 Olivas went to Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio and took care of the engines of the transport plane C-5 "Galaxy". In the summer of the following year he worked at the Johnson Space Center (JSC ) and tested new materials for space suits to NASA.
After Olivas had his doctorate at Rice University in the spring of 1996, he went to California. Initially he worked for a subcontracting company in the aviation industry, before he took a position at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL). He worked as a research engineer in quality assurance, where he developed methods to examine components nondestructively, which are intended for use in space. Thereafter, he was promoted to head of the production backup and explored the sensitivity of electronic circuits.
Astronauts activity
Together with 24 colleagues Olivas was in the summer of 1998, selected with the 17th astronaut group of NASA. After his basic training he was assigned to the Robotics Branch of the Astronaut Office, where he was responsible for the " Canada Hand " of the ISS. There followed three years where he worked in the department for spacewalks on techniques to repair the Shuttle in orbit.
STS -117 was Olivas ' maiden flight, which took place in June 2007 to the International Space Station. Main payload of the Atlantis was the S3/S4-Element. Along with James Reilly, he led by two of the four spacewalks. Here, the S3/S4-Bauteil were mounted on the station retracted the solar panels and the second wing of the solar module P6.
On his second space flight launched Olivas on August 29, 2009. The space shuttle Discovery put him in the mission STS -128 to the International Space Station, where he was involved in all three spacewalks. The landing took place on 12 September 2009.
According to the NASA
Olivas left NASA on May 25, 2010. In August 2013 he went back to the University of Texas to El Paso. He took over the leadership of the Center for the Advancement of Space Safety and Mission Assurance Research ( CASSMAR ), be operated on the research that will make human spaceflight safer.
Private
Danny Olivas is married and has five children.