Leroy Chiao
Leroy Chiao, Ph.D. is a Chinese American astronaut with NASA.
Biography
Born August 28, 1960, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but considers Danville, California, to be his hometown. Leroy and Karen Chiao married in 2003. He enjoys flying his Grumman Tiger aircraft, as well as skiing. Dr. Chiao is fluent in Mandarin and Russian. His Chinese name is 焦立中.
Education
Graduated from Monte Vista High School, Danville, California, in 1978; received a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1983, and a master of science degree and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1985 and 1987, respectively.
Special honours
Invited to give technical seminars on honeycomb material and bonded panels, and cure modeling of aerospace composite materials, at the Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials, and at the Changsha Institute of Technology, 5th Department, in the Peoples Republic of China. Invited contributor to the International Encyclopedia of Composite Materials. Listed in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering. Recipient of Distinguished Alumni Award from University of California, Santa Barbara. Keynote Commencement Speaker for the Departments of Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, and at Santa Barbara, in 1996. Recipient of three NASA Space Flight Medals, and numerous awards including two NASA Exceptional Service Awards.
Pre-NASA professional experience
Dr. Chiao graduated in 1987 from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and joined the Hexcel Corporation in Dublin, California. He worked for Hexcel until 1989, during which time he was involved in process, manufacturing, and engineering research on advanced aerospace materials; worked on a joint NASA-JPL/Hexcel project to develop a practical, optically correct, precision segment reflector, made entirely of advanced polymer composite materials, for future space telescopes; as well as working on cure modeling and finite element analysis. In January of 1989 Dr. Chiao joined the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, where he was involved in processing research for fabrication of filament-wound and thick-section aerospace composites. Dr. Chiao also developed and demonstrated a mechanistic cure model for graphite fiber/epoxy composite material. An instrument-rated pilot, Dr. Chiao has logged over 2500 flight hours in a variety of aircraft.
NASA experience
Selected by NASA in January 1990, Dr. Chiao became an astronaut in July 1991. He is qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. His technical assignments to date include: Space Shuttle flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL); crew equipment, Spacelab, Spacehab and payloads issues for the Astronaut Office Mission Development Branch; Training and Flight Data File issues; EVA issues for the EVA Branch. Dr. Chiao also served as Chief of the Astronaut Office EVA Branch. A veteran of three space flights, he flew as a mission specialist on STS-65 in 1994, STS-72 in 1996 and STS-92 in 2000. Dr. Chiao has logged a total of 36 days, 12 hours, 36 minutes and 5 seconds in space, including over 26 EVA hours in four space walks.
Dr. Chiao is assigned as Commander and NASA Science Officer of Expedition 10, scheduled to launch to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft in October 2004.
Space flight experience
STS-65 Columbia (July 8-23, 1994) launched from and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, setting a new flight duration record for the Space Shuttle program at that time. The STS-65 mission flew the second International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-2). During the 15-day flight the seven-member crew conducted more than 80 experiments focusing on materials and life sciences research in microgravity. The STS-65 mission was accomplished in 236 orbits of the Earth, traveling 6.1 million miles in 353 hours and 55 minutes.
STS-72 Endeavour (January 11-20, 1996) was a 9-day mission during which the crew retrieved the Space Flyer Unit (launched from Japan 10-months earlier), and deployed and retrieved the OAST-Flyer. Dr. Chiao performed two spacewalks designed to demonstrate tools and hardware, and evaluate techniques to be used in the assembly of the International Space Station. In completing this mission, Dr. Chiao logged a total of 214 hours and 41 seconds in space, including just over 13 EVA hours, and traveled 3.7 million miles in 142 orbits of the Earth.
STS-92 Discovery (October 11-24, 2000) was launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida and returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California. During the 13-day flight, the seven member crew attached the Z1 Truss and Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 to the International Space Station using Discovery’s robotic arm and performed four space walks to configure these elements. This expansion of the ISS opened the door for future assembly missions and prepared the station for its first resident crew. Dr. Chiao totaled 13 hours and 16 minutes of EVA time in two space walks. The STS-92 mission was accomplished in 202 orbits, traveling 5.3 million miles in 12 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes and 25 seconds.
ISS Expedition 10 October 9, 2004 - April, 2005, Dr. Chiao is the Commander of Expedition 10 on the International Space Station.
See also: Other Chinese American astronauts with NASA: Edward Tsang Lu, Taylor Gun-Jin Wang.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.