NATIONAL ASTRONAUT DAY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Events Management Marketing PR
Culbertson is a member of a number of organizations, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Fellow), the Association of Naval Aviators, the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association, the Aviation Boatswains Mates Association, and the Association of Space Explorers. Culbertson has received numerous awards, including the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, 3 NASA Space Flight Medals, Navy Commendation Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal, and various other unit and service awards. He is a Distinguished Graduate, U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. He has been awarded Honorary Doctor of Science Degrees from the College of Charleston, 1994, and Lander University, 1999; he has also been awarded the Komarov Certificate and the Gagarin Gold Medal for Space Flight Achievement in 1994, the AAS Flight Achievement Award for STS-51 in 1994, Aviation Week & Space Technology 1997 Laurel for Achievement in Space, IEEE/ASME Award for Manager of the Year, 1997, and the Space Center Rotary Club Stellar Award for 1998. He has also been inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame and the South Carolina Aviation Hall of Fame.
Job Titles:
- President
- Mission Specialist for NASA
Dr. Olivas, a Mission Specialist for NASA for 12 years, worked on technical projects on land, under the ocean and in space. He was a crew member on two space shuttle missions, logging more than 650 hours, 440 earth orbits and 11 million miles in space and participating in five spacewalks totaling 34 hours. In space, he installed critical components into the International Space Station. He also accomplished the first ever spacewalk to repair the shuttle while in orbit, when damaged heat shielding posed a potentially disastrous threat to the shuttle and its crew.
Currently, Dr. Olivas is the president and driving force behind OMS117,™ a team of veteran scientists, engineers and business people who use Lessons Learned In Space™ to prevent or mitigate catastrophic engineering failures of critical systems and processes that could undermine a mission's success, injure people, or squander assets. Dr. Olivas holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and materials science from Rice University.
Leroy Chiao is a former NASA astronaut and International Space Station commander. He works in business and consulting. Chiao also holds appointments at Rice University and the Baylor College of Medicine, and is the special advisor for human spaceflight to the Space Foundation. He has worked extensively in both government and commercial space programs, and has held leadership positions in commercial ventures and NASA. Chiao has extensive experience as a NASA Astronaut and prior to that, as a Research Engineer. Dr. Chiao is a fellow of the Explorers Club, and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and the Committee of 100. Chiao also serves in various capacities to further space education.
Dr. Chiao left NASA in December, 2005 following a fifteen-year career with the agency. A veteran of four space missions, Dr. Chiao most recently served as Commander and NASA Science Officer of Expedition 10 aboard the International Space Station. He has logged over 229 days in space - over 36 hours of which were spent in Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA, or spacewalks). From June-September 2009, he served as a member of the White House appointed Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, and currently serves on the NASA Advisory Council.
A native English speaker, Dr. Chiao also speaks Mandarin Chinese and Russian. He has flown space missions and worked closely with Russian, Japanese and European Astronauts and their affiliated space agencies. Dr. Chiao is uniquely qualified to speak about the United States, Russian, Japanese, European and Chinese Space Programs. A Space Station Commander and Space Shuttle Mission Specialist, Dr. Chiao was also a certified Co-Pilot of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. He is an expert in all facets of U.S. and Russian EVA hardware and operations and is EVA certified in U.S. and Russian spacesuits, tools, and training programs. In September 2006, Chiao became the first American to visit the Astronaut Research and Training Center of China. There, he met the first national Chinese astronauts.
Dr. Chiao studied Chemical Engineering, earning a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983. He continued his studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, earning his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in 1985 and 1987. Prior to joining NASA in 1990, he worked as a Research Engineer at Hexcel Corp. and then at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Honors and Awards
Space Technology Hall of Fame Inductee
NASA: Distinguished Service Medal, 4 Space Flight Medals, 2 Exceptional Service Medals, 4 Individual Achievement, 2 Group Achievement Awards, Going the Extra Mile Award
Russian Federation: Medal for the Development of Space; Order of Gagarin Medal
Public Svc. Awards: Comm. of 100; Asian Chamber of Commerce; Asian Pacific American Heritage Assoc.
Federation Aeronautique Internationale: Koroliev Diploma, Komarov Diploma, De La Vaulx Medal
Distinguished Alumni Award, from the University of California, Santa Barbara
Excellence in Achievement Award, from the University of California, Berkeley
Explorers Club: Lowell Thomas Award
Phi Kappa Tau Awards: National Hall of Fame, Borradaile Award, Alumnus of the Year Award
Job Titles:
- Chairman of ASTM International 's Committee
- Vice President of Business Development for Axiom Space
Michael López-Alegría was born in Madrid, Spain and immigrated as a young boy with his family to the United States. He has over 40 years of aviation and space experience with the U.S. Navy and NASA in a variety of roles including Naval Aviator, engineering test pilot and program manager, NASA astronaut, and International Space Station commander.
López-Alegría is currently the Vice President of Business Development for Axiom Space, and has been selected to command the crew of Ax-1, the first fully private orbital space mission in human history. He is a four-time astronaut, having flown on Space Shuttle missions STS-73, STS-92, and STS- 113, and served as Commander of ISS Expedition 14 (flying to and from the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-9). He holds NASA records for the most Extravehicular Activities (EVA) or "space walks" (10) and cumulative EVA time (67 hours 40 minutes). He was elected to the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame as a 2020 inductee.
López-Alegría is the former President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, where he was a spokesman, thought leader and advocate with the U.S. Congress and pertinent Executive Agencies for favorable public policy on behalf of the commercial spaceflight industry. He has served on several advisory boards and committees of public and private organizations, including the Human Exploration and Operations Committee of the NASA Advisory Council and the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee to the FAA.
López-Alegría is the Chairman of ASTM International's Committee on Commercial Spaceflight as well as the past President of the Association of Space Explorers USA, a professional and educational organization of current and former astronauts.
Job Titles:
- VP, Industry Relations, Uniphi Space Agency
Steve Swanson, (PH.D.) is an engineer and a former NASA Astronaut. He flew on two space shuttle missions and one space station expedition.
Swanson graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering Physics, after which he earned a Master's of Applied Science from Florida Atlantic University in Computer Systems. He furthered his education with a Doctorate in Computer Science from Texas A&M. Swanson began his work at NASA in 1987 as a systems engineer and flight engineer working on the Shuttle Training Aircraft. He was selected as an astronaut in 1998.
Swanson's first flight to space was aboard Atlantis for STS-117, which marked the 250th orbital human spaceflight. He served as Mission Specialist 2 and completed 2 spacewalks, and operated both robotic arms. STS-117 delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) the second Starboard Truss segment (S3), which also included a set of solar arrays. STS-117 was the longest mission ever for Atlantis due to landing delays as a result of bad weather.
Swanson's second flight was STS-119 aboard Discovery where he served as Mission Specialist 2 and Lead Spacewalker. This flight delivered and assembled the fourth set of Starboard Truss segment (S6) for ISS. Swanson completed 2 spacewalks on this flight.
Swanson's third and final spaceflight was Expedition 39/40. He launched to the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-12M March 25, 2014 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Swanson served as the ISS Commander for Expedition 40. He landed back in Kazakhstan on Sept. 11, 2014. He performed many scientific experiments while onboard and also performed one spacewalk to replace a broken computer.