Chamitoff Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Married. Born in Montreal, Canada.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 17 - 1998. Active Entered space service: 4 June 1998.

NAME: Gregory Errol Chamitoff (Ph.D.)

NASA Astronaut Candidate (Mission Specialist)

PERSONAL DATA:

Born August 6, 1962 in Montreal, Canada. Has lived in the U.S. since 1974, and considers San Jose, California, to be his hometown. He is married to A. Chantal Caviness, M.D., of Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Shari J. Chamitoff, resides in Discovery Bay, California. His father, Ashley M. Chamitoff, is deceased. Her parents are Madeline Caviness, Ph.D., and Verne Caviness, M.D., of Boston, Massachusetts. Recreational interests include scuba diving, flying, backpacking, skiing, racquetball, aikido, and guitar.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Blackford High School, San Jose, California, in 1980; received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo, California, in 1984; a master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, California, in 1985; and a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1992.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Senior Member, American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA), Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Society, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, National Space Society (NSS).

HONORS:

AIAA Technical Excellence Award (1998); NASA Silver Snoopy Award (1997); NASA/USA Space Flight Awareness Award (1997); C.S. Draper Laboratory Graduate Fellowship (1985-92); IEEE Graduate Fellowship (1985); Tau Beta Pi Fellowship (1984); Applied Magnetics Scholarships (1982, 83, 84); Academic Excellence Award (Cal Poly, 1984); Most Outstanding Senior Award (Cal Poly, 1984); President’s Honor List (Cal Poly, 1981-84); Degree of Excellence and California Statewide Speech Finalist (National Forensic League, 1980); Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America, 1980).

EXPERIENCE:

As an electrical engineering student at Cal Poly, Chamitoff worked summers as a student engineer at Four Phase Systems, Atari, Northern Telecom, and IBM. He was also a lab course instructor for analog and digital circuit design. His undergraduate thesis was on the development and construction of a self-guided robot. While at MIT and Draper Labs (1985-91) Chamitoff worked on a variety of NASA projects. He performed stability analyses of shuttle attitude control for the initial release of the Hubble Space Telescope, developed flight control upgrades for redundancy in the Space Shuttle autopilot, and constructed models for vehicle design and trajectory optimization of the National Aerospace Plane. In his doctoral thesis, Chamitoff developed a new robust intelligent flight control approach for hypersonic single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicles. After graduation, he remained at Draper Labs on a team that developed an incremental attitude control system for Space Station Freedom. In 1993, Chamitoff became a visiting professor at the University of Sydney, Australia. There he led a research group in the development of autonomous flight control systems and taught courses in flight dynamics and control theory. In 1995, Chamitoff joined the International Space Station Motion Control Systems group in the Mission Operations Directorate at JSC (as a Rockwell employee). In that position, he led the development of several applications for the automation of spacecraft attitude control monitoring, prediction, analysis, and maneuver optimization. Chamitoff has published numerous papers on aircraft and spacecraft guidance and control, trajectory optimization, parameter estimation, and in-situ resource utilization on Mars.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in June 1998, he reported for training in August 1998. Astronaut candidate training includes orientation briefings and tours, water and wilderness survival training, numerous scientific and technical briefings, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and intensive instruction on Shuttle and International Space Station systems. Following a period of training and evaluation, Chamitoff will receive technical assignments within the Astronaut Office before being assigned to a space flight.

19 July 1985 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 17 selected.. The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.

Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Of 25 Americans, eight pilots and 17 mission specialists.