Steven Swanson
- STS- 117 (2007)
- STS- 119 (2009)
- Soyuz TMA -12M (2014) ISS Expedition 39
- ISS Expedition 40
Steven Ray Swanson ( born December 3, 1960 in Syracuse, New York, USA) is an American astronaut.
Training
Swanson grew up in Steamboat Springs (Colorado), where he attended high school until 1979. He then studied in Boulder at the University of Colorado Technical Physics. After his undergraduate degree he took at Florida Atlantic University, the subject computer science and received a Master's degree in 1986.
Swanson then worked a year as a software engineer at GTE Communications (since 2000 Verizon Wireless) in Arizona until he transferred to NASA. At the Johnson Space Center (JSC ) in Houston (Texas ), he took care to shop around the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA ), which serves as the astronaut training aircraft. The STA is equipped with an onboard computer, which allows to simulate the flying characteristics of a space shuttle during landing. In addition, he continued his studies in computer science and a doctorate in 1998 at the Texas A & M University.
Astronauts activity
As one of 17 mission specialists Swanson was introduced in June 1998, after he had two years earlier unsuccessfully applied. From a total of 2,618 applicants who met the formal selection criteria, 101 finalists had emerged. They were invited in autumn 1997 to the JSC to tests, interviews and medical examinations. Following the two -year basic training, he was inducted into the Space Station and the robotics department.
STS -117
Since the spring of 2005, Swanson was preparing for his first space flight, which took place under the name STS -117 in June 2007. The Atlantis brought the S3/S4-Element to the International Space Station (ISS). Together with Patrick Forrester, 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.
STS -119
In October 2007, he was assigned to the space mission STS -119. In this space shuttle mission, the last solar cell element of the ISS was launched into space. The launch took place on March 15, 2009. The STS -119 mission was on 28 March 2009 with the landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to a successful end.
ISS long-term stay
In July 2011, was assigned as a backup flight engineer for the ISS Expeditions 37 and 38, but did not play. For the next available expedition, he then moved on to the main team. The launch of the Soyuz TMA -12M spacecraft took place on March 25, 2014, the link with the ISS two days late on 27 March. During the expedition, 39 Swanson works as a flight engineer. After undocking of Soyuz TMA -11M in May 2014 he will take over the command of the ISS Expedition 40.
Private
Swanson is married and has three children.