Leroy Chiao

Leroy Chiao
Leroy Chiao
	File:Chiao.jpg
Nationality	American
Occupation	Engineer
	Space career
Astronaut, Cosmonaut
Time in space	229d 08h 41m
Selection	1990 NASA Group
Missions	STS-65, STS-72, STS-92, Soyuz TMA-5, Expedition 10
Mission insignia	File:Sts-65-patch.jpg File:Sts-72-patch.jpg File:STS-92 patch.jpg

Dr. Leroy Chiao, Ph.D. (born August 28, 1960) is a former American NASA astronaut who was stationed on board the International Space Station between 2004 and 2005.

Early life

Chiao was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and raised in Danville, California. Chiao graduated from Monte Vista High School in Danville in 1978. In 1983 he received a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He earned a master of science degree and then a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1985 and 1987, respectively.

Dr. Chaio's family is from East China. Dr. Leroy Chiao’s father (Tsu-Tao Chiao) grew up in Shandong Province in China; his mother (Dr. Cherry Chu Chiao) came from Tsingtao. After World War II, both fled to Taiwan, where they met and married. His parents immigrated to the United States in the 1950’s. In an interview with a reporter from the China Daily newspaper, Chiao revealed that his radio call name in space is "Shandong," from the name of the province in China where he still has family members.

Leroy was born in 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1967, his family moved to Danville, California. Both parents were practicing chemical engineers when his father was accepted at a university in Rhode Island for graduate studies. The university chairman at the time would not allow women to study chemical engineering so Chiao’s mother enrolled in graduate studies in chemistry. When the family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from Chiao’s birthplace of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Chiao’s mother earned a Ph.D. in materials science from UC Berkeley. Dr. Chiao's two sisters are also Berkeley graduates. One sister, Judy Chiao Smith, is a C.P.A., and the other, Sandra Chiao, is a neuropsychologist with a Ph.D. Dr. Chiao’s first job at age 16 was at a McDonald’s in Walnut Creek, California.

"Since the moment he watched the moon landing on TV [at age eight], he got very excited," says Chiao's mother Cherry (UC Berkeley, Ph.D.'76 MSE). "When he built a space vessel in the garage, I thought he was just playing. But then in graduate school he started talking about becoming an astronaut; that's when we knew he was serious."

Pre-NASA professional experience

Upon graduation, Chiao worked at Hexcel Corporation in Dublin, California from 1987 to 1989. 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 1989, 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. Chiao also developed and demonstrated a mechanistic cure model for graphite fiber/epoxy composite material (see Graphite-reinforced plastic). 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, 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; and Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) issues for the EVA Branch. Chiao also served as Chief of the Astronaut Office EVA Branch.

A veteran of three space flights, Chiao flew as a mission specialist on STS-65 in 1994, STS-72 in 1996 and STS-92 in 2000. Chiao had logged over 36 days and 12.5 hours in space, including over 26 EVA hours in four space walks, prior to his mission aboard the International Space Station.

As of 2005, Chiao is assigned as Commander and NASA Science Officer of Expedition 10, which launched aboard a Soyuz on 14 October 2004.

In addition to being fluent in Mandarin, Chiao learned Russian as part of the International Space Station program. On November 2 2004, Dr. Chiao voted in the 2004 United States presidential election from aboard the International Space Station, making him the first American to vote in a presidential election while in space. McDonald’s presented Chiao with a Big Mac and French Fries at their branch in Star City as one of his first meals since returning to Earth after his ISS assignment. Among the souvenirs he brought into space in his previous space flights were a Chinese flag and a quartz-carved rose from Hong Kong.

Dr. Chiao was the inadvertent developer of the procedure to use the IRED (Interim Resistive Exercise Device) to excite the solar arrays of the ISS. During an exercise session of squats on the ISS, Dr. Chiao sent a vibration through the space station that caused the solar arrays to ripple - a low amplitude frequency response. When Chiao did this, the response from Mission Control was "knock it off." However, many years later during an ISS assembly flight in December 2006 (STS-116), German astronaut Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency was told to do 30 seconds of robust exercise on the bungee-bar IRED machine to help retract ISS solar arrays, specifically to relieve tension in a wire system that was preventing the array from folding up like an accordion. An eventual unplanned spacewalk during the same shuttle mission managed to finally retract the array.

Special honors

Recipient of three NASA Space Flight Medals (2000, 1996, 1994)
Two NASA Exceptional Service Awards (2000, 1996)
Four NASA Individual Achievement Awards (2004, 2003, 2002, 2001)
Two NASA Group Achievement awards (1997, 1995)
NASA Going the Extra Mile Award (2004)
Recipient of two Phi Kappa Tau awards - the Taylor A. Borradaile National Alumnus of the Year Award (1996) and the Nu Chapter Alumnus of the Year (1991) award
Invited to give technical seminars on honeycomb material and bonded panels, as well as cure modeling of aerospace composite materials, at the Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials, and at the Changsha Institute of Technology, 5th Department, in the People's Republic of China
Invited contributor to the International Encyclopedia of Composite Materials (1989)
Listed in Who's Who in Science and Engineering (1990)
Recipient of Distinguished Alumni Award from University of California, Santa Barbara (1995)
Keynote Commencement Speaker for the Departments of Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, and at Santa Barbara, in 1996
Recipient of numerous Federation Aeronautique Internationale awards, including the Korolev Diploma (2002), Komarov Diploma (1996) and De La Vaulx Medal (1994)
Recipient of the 2003 Excellence Award in Science and Technology, from the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce
Recipient of the 100 Most Influential Asian Americans in the 1990¹s Award from A-Magazine (2000)

Detailed space flight experience

File:Iss010e33563.jpg

Astronaut Leroy Chiao, Expedition 10 commander and NASA ISS science officer, wearing a Russian Orlan spacesuit, participates in the first of two sessions of extravehicular activities (EVA) performed by the Expedition 10 crew during their six-month mission.

STS-65 Columbia (July 8–July 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–January 20, 1996) was a nine-day mission during which the crew retrieved the Space Flyer Unit (launched from Japan ten months earlier), and deployed and retrieved the OAST-Flyer. 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, Chiao logged a total of 214 hours and 41 seconds in space, including just over thirteen EVA hours, and traveled 3.7 million miles in 142 orbits of the Earth.

STS-92 Discovery (October 11–October 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. 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 24 2005, Chiao was the Commander of Expedition 10 on the International Space Station. On November 2, 2004, Dr. Chiao voted in the 2004 United States presidential election from aboard the International Space Station, making him the first American to vote in a presidential election while in space. Dr. Chiao is actually the second person to vote from space but the first to vote for a U.S. president. Voting in space was setup in 1997 by the Texas State Legislature using standard computer encryption techniques. An e-mail link sent Chiao’s ballot directly to the county clerk’s office.

Post-NASA professional experience

As of December, 2005, Dr. Leroy Chiao is working as an independent consultant. After leaving NASA, Dr. Chiao has become involved in entrepreneurial business ventures in both the U.S. and China.

He was hired in July 2006 as the Executive Vice President for Space Operations and a Director of Excalibur Almaz Limited. He is responsible for all operational aspects of spaceflight, including training for both the capsule and space station. Excalibur Almaz was incorporated in the Isle of Man for tax and regulatory purposes. The company has assembled a team from the Isle of Man, the United States, Russia, the Ukraine and Continental Europe to begin work towards refurbishing and flying a capsule in space based upon the design of the Almaz capsules. During the Cold War, the Soviets built and launched three of their surveillance stations designated "Almaz" or "diamond" in Russian. These stations, however, were publicly called "Salyut" stations after the civilian version to disguise the fact that they were military in nature. In parallel, Almaz capsule spacecraft were developed to service the Almaz stations. Because of political considerations, the Almaz capsules were canceled and the Soyuz spacecraft were used instead to fly three manned missions to the Almaz stations. Although they have not flown manned, the Almaz capsules were successfully flown nine times in space during flight-testing.

He is currently the Chairman of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) User Panel, which is attached to the Baylor College of Medicine. The NSBRI, funded by NASA, is a consortium of institutions studying the health risks related to long-duration space flight. The Institute’s User Panel is an advisory board comprised of former and current astronauts and flight surgeons that ensures NSBRI’s research program is focused on astronaut health and safety. In preparation for lunar and Mars exploration, Chiao and the User Panel will help align NSBRI’s science and technology projects with the needs of astronauts on long missions.

In early 2006, he joined the Atlanta firm of SpaceWorks Engineering, Inc. (SEI) as an affiliate and technical advisor (on a non-exclusive basis). Dr. Chiao is assisting the firm on space technologies/operating processes for future space exploration concepts and research on the commercialization of space.

In March 2006, Dr. Chiao was announced as a professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In August 2006, Dr. Chiao will join the LSU College of Engineering and its Department of Mechanical Engineering as a visiting professor, and the first Smiley and Bernice Romero Raborn Chair in Mechanical Engineering, as part of the Initiative to Recognize Max Faget. The Raborn chair was established through a $600,000 gift from Francis “Buzz” and Marcia Raborn in honor of their parents, Smiley and Bernice Romero Raborn. Dr. Chiao will be the first visiting professor to fill the newly established chair, which is part of the College of Engineering’s effort to recognize Maxime Faget.

In July 2007, Leroy Chiao joined an expedition to visit Devon Island and conduct 5 days of webcasts and other instructional activities spanning the period of 16-20 July 2007. This activity was sponsored by the Mars Institute and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education with additional assistance from The Explorers Club and SpaceRef Interactive, Inc. and from the team itself. He conducted these webcasts from the Haughton-Mars Project Research Station and nearby locations to illustrate how NASA and other space agencies are learning to live on the Moon and Mars here on Earth. The team consisted of 4 individuals: veteran astronauts William Readdy and Leroy Chiao, horticulturist/space researcher Matthew Reyes, and space biologist/NASAWatch blogger Keith Cowing.

Personal life

Chiao married his wife, Karen (a former professional photographer) in 2003, they live in a neighborhood built around the local airport. He enjoys flying his Grumman Tiger aircraft, as well as skiing.

External links

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.