Andy Thomas
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Andrew "Andy" S.W. Thomas (b. December 18 1951 in Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian astronaut working for NASA.
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Education
Thomas received a bachelor of engineering degree in mechanical engineering, with First Class Honors, from the University of Adelaide in 1973, and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Adelaide in 1978.
He appears in the 1972 edition of the Adelaide University Engineering Society's annual publication, Hysteresis. The caption below a photograph of the young Thomas reads:
"A.S.W. (Syd) Thomas: Hides his massive intellect behind a screen of silence and hair. His abilities are varied and include designing wine labels for the A.U.E.S."
Hysteresis 1972, pg 27 [1]
Astronaut Experience
In August 1993, following one year of training, he was appointed a member of the astronaut corps and was qualified for assignment as a mission specialist on Space Shuttle flight crews.
In June 1995 Dr. Thomas was named as payload commander for STS-77 and flew his first flight in space on Space Shuttle Endeavour in May 1996. He next trained at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia in preparation for a long-duration flight. In 1998, he served as Board Engineer 2 aboard the Russian Space Station Mir for 130 days. Dr. Thomas completed his third space flight on STS-102 and has logged over 177 days in space.
Dr. Thomas has served as Deputy Chief of NASA's Astronaut Office.
On his fourth space flight he was a Mission Specialist for the STS-114 Space Shuttle Discovery "return to flight" mission that launched at 14:39 UTC, 26 July 2005.
References
External links
- Astronaut blasts lack of research into space (The Sun-Herald, May 20, 2004): Comments from Thomas about state of Australian space sciencede:Andrew Sydney Withiel Thomas