Andy Thomas

Andrew Sydney Withiel Thomas, AO (born 18 December 1951) is an Australian and American aerospace engineer and a former NASA astronaut. He has dual nationality; he became a U.S. citizen in December 1986, hoping to gain entry to NASA's astronaut program. He is married to fellow NASA astronaut Shannon Walker.

Early life and education Thomas went to St Andrews Primary School, Adelaide at Walkerville in South Australia and subsequently to St Peter's College, Adelaide. After secondary school, he studied at the University of Adelaide, where he received a BEng degree with First Class Honours in 1973 and a PhD degree in 1978, both in Mechanical Engineering.

He appears in the 1972 edition of the Adelaide University Engineering Society's (AUES) annual publication, Hysteresis. The caption below a photograph of the 21-year-old Thomas reads:

He is the great-great-grandson of Frederick George Waterhouse, first curator of the South Australian Institute Museum, and naturalist of the John McDouall Stuart Expedition 1861–1862.

Early career As a child, growing up in Fullarton, Adelaide, Thomas was fascinated by space. His father has described how he started building model rockets from cardboard and plastics.

STS-102 Discovery (8–21 March 2001) was the eighth Shuttle mission to visit the International Space Station and Thomas's third flight. Mission accomplishments included the delivery of the Expedition 2 crew and logistics resupply with the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, and then the return to Earth of the Expedition 1 crew. During the mission, Thomas performed an EVA of 6.5 hours to install components to the outside of the space station. The mission duration was 307 hours and 49 minutes.

STS-114 Discovery (26 July – 9 August 2005) was the Return to Flight mission following the Columbia accident during which the crew continued the assembly of the International Space Station. Thomas tested and evaluated new procedures for flight safety and inspection and repair techniques for the Shuttle's thermal protection system. After a 2-week, 5.8 million mile journey in space, the orbiter Discovery and its crew returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The mission duration was 333 hours, 32 minutes, 48 seconds.

Post-NASA career On 20 November 2020, the Andy Thomas Foundation was launched. The purpose was to advance space education, raise awareness, and contribute to the Australian space community.

Honours and awards 1998: Oswald Watt Gold Medal (Australia's highest aviation award). 2000: Appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) "for service to science and technology through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) programme as an astronaut and for contributions to the human exploration of space." 2001: Centenary Medal 2018: Life Membership of the Space Industry Association of Australia One of the main roads near the International and Domestic Terminal at Adelaide International Airport (ADL) is named Andy Thomas Drive in his honour.