Kenneth Cockrell

  • STS -56 (1993)
  • STS -69 (1995)
  • STS -80 ( 1996)
  • STS -98 ( 2001)
  • STS- 111 (2002)

Kenneth Dale " Taco " Cockrell ( born April 9, 1950 in Austin, Texas, USA) is an American astronaut.

Life

Born in the capital of the U.S. state of Texas, Cockrell grew up in the nearby small town of Rockdale. In 1968 he graduated from the High School and studied at the University of Texas engineering. After completing his Bachelor's degree, which he earned in 1972, he went to the University of West Florida, where he took the main compartment aeronautics and 1974 received a master. Cockrell joined the U.S. Navy and was from 1975 for three years added as a marine pilot on the A -7 " Corsair II " on the now- decommissioned aircraft carrier " USS Midway ", the route led to the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific. Back in the U.S., Ken attended the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River ( Maryland). After completing his education in 1979, he remained there until the summer of 1982 as a test pilot. This was followed by several years as a staff officer of the commander of the combat units on the "USS Ranger" and the "USS Kitty Hawk". In 1985, he as a pilot ( F/A-18 " Hornet " ) was reinstated and went on as a member of a combat squadron two missions aboard the "USS Constellation".

In 1987, Cockrell left the active military service and took in November of the year to a position as an aeronautical engineer and test pilot at the Johnson Space Center (JSC ) in Houston. Until July 1990 he trained the astronauts on the training machine of type T -38 " Talon ", flew back and forth representative of the NASA management, or collected for research purposes, samples of air from the upper atmosphere.

Astronauts activity

Cockrell was presented with the 13th group of the NASA Astronaut Corps in January 1990 as a pilot candidate for the Space Shuttle. Basic training began in July 1990 and lasted twelve months.

Only two years after its selection Cockrell was assigned its first flight in early 1992: STS -56, also known as ATLAS -2, was held in April 1993. The nine-day company explored the relationships in the interplay between the sun and Earth's atmosphere. Cockrell served on this flight (although trained pilot ) officially only as a mission specialist. The five-member crew worked in two-shift operation to ensure maximum utilization of scientific experiments. Commander and pilot were summarized with mission specialist Ochoa in the Blue team, while Cockrell with Mr Foale was the Red Team. Required course corrections must be made by a shuttle pilot, so stand Cockrell as " third driver " to his team. In September 1995, undertook Cockrell, who is called by his fellow astronaut " Taco ", as pilot on STS -69 his second space flight .. In the hold up was called the Wake Shield Facility ( WSF ), which should produce new semiconductor materials during their three-day free flight. In addition, the astronomy platform was SPARTAN -201 suspended for two days that took mainly the solar wind under the microscope.

Only four months later, Cockrell was nominated as commander of STS- 80. When the last flight of 1996, for the third time came the WSF used. In addition, the native of Germany Astronomy platform ORFEUS -SPAS was exposed and captured towards the end of the flight again. By contrast, could not be carried out two spacewalks planned due to technical problems. Then Cockrell served as Chief of the Astronaut Office until he began training for his fourth flight in the fall of 1998. STS -98 was the construction of the International Space Station (ISS ) and extended it in February 2001 by the U.S. Destiny module.

Already three months later was transferred Cockrell his next mission. STS -111 was also a flight to the ISS, which was conducted in June 2002. During the two weeks in orbit three exits have been made and replaced the guards of the ISS.

The year 2003 Cockrell spent in Russia. He worked as a liaison officer in " Star City " near Moscow and coordinated the Russian-American ISS activities. He then worked as deputy chief of the aerospace division of JSC until he was appointed in the spring of 2006 to research pilots. He leads the high-altitude research program of NASA, which examines the airfield of the JSC ( Ellington Field) with two aircraft of type WB- 57, the Earth's upper atmosphere.

Ken Cockrell is divorced and has with his ex- wife, Joan, two children, daughter Madeline and son Nathaniel.

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