Linteris Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Single. Born in Demarest, New Jersey, USA. PhD

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: Payload Specialist. Inactive Entered space service: February1996. Left space service: 17 July 1997. Number of Flights: 2.00. Total Time: 19.66 days.

NAME: Gregory T. Linteris (Ph.D.)

Payload Specialist

PERSONAL DATA:

Born October 4, 1957, in Demarest, New Jersey, where his parents, Lino Luigi Linteris and Helen Mary Linteris reside. Single. Recreational interests include running, skiing, board sailing, hiking, backpacking, and reading, and was a member of Princeton's wrestling team.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest, New Jersey in 1975; received a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 1979; obtained a master of science degree from the design division of the mechanical engineering department at Stanford University in 1984; and was awarded a doctorate in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University in 1990.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Physical Society, Combustion Institute, Sigma Xi.

PUBLICATIONS:

Dr. Linteris has over 40 publications in the areas of combustion, chemical kinetics, spectroscopy, and heat transfer.

SPECIAL HONORS:

Graduated with honors from Princeton University (1979). Awarded a Mechanical Engineering Department Fellowship from Stanford University (1983), and received Fourth Place in the James F. Lincoln National Design Competition (1984). At Princeton, he was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1985), a Grumman Prize for excellence in Research (1988), and the Luigi Crocco Award (1988) for outstanding performance as an Assistant in Instruction.

EXPERIENCE:

At Princeton from 1985 to 1990, Dr. Linteris studied the high temperature chemical kinetics of combustion reactions in a turbulent chemical kinetic flow reactor using laser induced fluorescence and laser absorption. As a research staff member at the University of California, San Diego, from 1990 to 1992, he studied droplet dynamics and performed numerical and analytical modeling of the chemistry important in the gas-phase reaction region of solid rocket propellants. Since 1992 he has been at the National Institute of Standards and Technology where he has been developing a research program on advanced fire suppressants and studying the inhibition mechanisms of chemical inhibitors. He is Principal Investigator on a NASA microgravity combustion experiment: "Chemical Inhibitor Effects on Diffusion Flames in Microgravity." Most recently, Dr. Linteris flew on STS-83, April 4-8, 1997. STS-83, the Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL-1) Spacelab mission, was cut short because of problems with one of the Shuttle's three fuel cell power generation units. Mission duration was 95 hours and 12 minutes, traveling 1.5 million miles in 63 orbits of the Earth.

CURRENT ASSIGNMENT:

Dr. Linteris will serve as a payload specialist on STS-94. The 16-day re-flight of the Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL-1) Spacelab mission will focus on materials and combustion science research in microgravity. Launch is scheduled for the Summer of 1997 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia.

• 4 April 1997 Flight: STS-83. Flight Up: STS-83. Flight Back: STS-83. Flight Time: 3.97 days.

• 1 July 1997 Flight: STS-94. Flight Up: STS-94. Flight Back: STS-94. Flight Time: 15.70 days.

4 April 1997 - STS-83. The launch of STS-83, the first Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL-1) mission, was postponed for a day to replace some insulation around a water coolant line in Columbia's payload bay. Liftoff was further delayed 20 minutes due to anomalous oxygen readings in the orbiter's payload bay. STS-83 was cut short due to a problem with one of the three fuel cells that provide electricity and water to Columbia (flight rules required that all three must be operating). At 14:30 GMT on April 6 the crew were ordered to begin a Minimum Duration Flight (MDF). On April 8 the OMS engines ignited at 17:30 GMT for the deorbit burn, and Columbia landed on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 18:33 GMT.

With delays in International Space Station construction leaving ample room in the shuttle schedule, NASA made the unique decision to leave the equipment installed in Columbia and refly this mission with the same crew later in 1997 as STS-94.

• MSL-1: The Microgravity Science Laboratory included the first test of the International Space Station’s EXPRESS Rack. MSL-1 also contained numerous other experiment payloads to test materials and combustion processes in zero gravity.
• CRYOFD: The Cryogenic Flexible Diode (CRYOFD) heat pipe was a Hitchhiker payload.
• OARE: The Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment was a self-calibrating instrument that monitored extremely small accelerations and vibrations experienced during orbit of the Shuttle.

The mission this time went for its full two week duration and the crew completed the full list of experiments. The deorbit burn was on July 17, 1997 at 09:44 GMT and Columbia landed on KSC's Runway 33 at 10:46:34 GMT.