STS-95 Mission Specialist 3: Pedro Duque

Crew Member

Pedro Duque

NAME: Pedro Duque
ESA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:
Born March 14, 1963 in Madrid, Spain. Enjoys diving, swimming and cycling.

EDUCATION:
Received a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronáuticos, Universidad Politécnica, Madrid, Spain, in 1986.

SPECIAL HONORS:
Awarded the "Order of Friendship" by President Yeltsin of the Russian Federation (March 1995).

EXPERIENCE:
During Duque's studies, he worked on a flight simulator project in the laboratory of Flight Mechanics on a fellowship, and on the computation of environmental torques on spacecraft, under ESA contract. He joined GMV (Grupo Mecánica del Vuelo) in 1986, and in the same year he became the technical leader in a helicopter rotor simulation project. At the end of 1986, Duque was sent as contracted staff to ESA's European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt Germany, to work within the Precise Orbit Determination Group. From 1986 to 1992, he worked on the development of models for orbit determination, algorithms and implementation of orbit computation software. He was also part of the Flight Control Team (Orbit Determination) of ESA's ERS-1 and EURECA satellites.
In May 1992, Duque was selected to join the Astronaut Corps of the European Space Agency (ESA) based at the European Astronauts Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. In 1992 he completed the Introductory Training Program at EAC and a four-week training program at TsPK (the Russian Astronauts Training Centre) in Star City, Russia, with a view to future ESA-Russian collaboration on the Mir Space Station. From January to July 1993, he performed Basic Training at EAC.

In August 1993, Duque returned to TsPK to train in preparation for the joint ESA-Russian EUROMIR 94 mission. Training led to qualification as Research Astronaut for Soyuz and Mir. In May 1994, he was selected as member of crew 2 (backup) joining Yuri Gidzenko and Sergeij Avdeev. During the EUROMIR 94 mission which took place from October 3, 1994 to November 4, 1994, Duque was the prime Crew Interface Coordinator in the Russian Mission Control Centre (TsUP).

In January 1995, Duque began an extended training course on Russian space systems in Star City and supported the second joint ESA-Russian mission, EUROMIR 95.

NASA EXPERIENCE:
In May, 1995, Duque was selected as an Alternate Payload Specialist astronaut for the Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS) mission, STS-78, flown in June-July, 1996. During this seventeen day mission Duque worked with the Crew Interface Coordinators as the interface between the investigators on ground and the crew onboard Columbia for all experiment related issues. ESA had five major facilities on the flight and was responsible for more than half of the experiments performed. In July 1996 he was selected by ESA to attend NASA Astronaut Candidate Training.
Duque reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996 for two years of training and evaluation. He was initially assigned to the Computer Support Branch of the Astronaut Office, supporting Space Shuttle and International Space Station Programs and advanced technology development. Duque is currently assigned to the crew of STS-95. This mission will support a variety of research payloads including deployment of the Spartan solar-observing spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform, and investigations on space flight and the aging process. STS-95 is scheduled for launch in October 1998.

APRIL 1998

Updated: 10/23/1998

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