Gregory Chamitoff

Gregory Errol Chamitoff (born 6 August 1962) is a Canadian-born American engineer and former NASA astronaut. He has been to space twice, spending 6 months aboard the ISS across Expedition 17 and 18 in 2008, and another 15 days as part of STS-134 in 2011. STS-134 was the last flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour which delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and completed the US Orbital Segment.

Early life and education Chamitoff was born 6 August 1962 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was inspired to become an astronaut after watching the Apollo 11 Moon landing at the age of six.

His education includes: Blackford High School, San Jose, California, 1980. B.S., Electrical Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, 1984. M.S., Aeronautical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 1985. Ph.D., Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1992. M.S., Physical Sciences (Space Science), University of Houston–Clear Lake, 2002.

He served as the backup Expedition 15/16 Flight Engineer 2 and STS-117/STS-120 Mission Specialist 5 for Clayton Anderson.

Expedition 17 and 18

Chamitoff served on a long-duration mission to the International Space Station. He launched as a mission specialist on board Space Shuttle mission STS-124. He was flight engineer 2 and science officer on Expedition 17. He returned home as a mission specialist on STS-126, completing a tour that lasted six months. He also bought a velcro chess set and started playing games against mission control, which got quite competitive. In 2008, Chamitoff voted from outer space.

While Richard Garriott was aboard the ISS at the beginning of Expedition 18, Chamitoff and Garriott filmed the first magic show in space, and along with Yury Lonchakov, Michael Fincke and Richard Garriott, filmed a science-fiction movie made in space, Apogee of Fear.

After conducting experiments with the SPHERES during his mission, he founded the Zero Robotics competition, where high school students program the robots.

STS-134 Chamitoff served as a mission specialist on STS-134, the penultimate Space Shuttle mission, during which he made two spacewalks, the last of which completed the construction of the ISS.

Gallery

Post-NASA career Chamitoff is currently a professor of Engineering Practice in the Aerospace Engineering Department at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He instructs senior design, human spaceflight operations, and dynamics and controls for aerospace vehicles.

Awards and honors

Chamitoff has received the following honors and awards: AIAA Associate Fellow AIAA Technical Excellence Award NASA Silver Snoopy award NASA/USA Space Flight Awareness Award C.S. Draper Laboratory Graduate Fellowship IEEE Graduate Fellowship Tau Beta Pi Honor Society Fellowship Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society Applied Magnetics Scholarships Academic Excellence Award Most Outstanding Senior Award Degree of Excellence and California Statewide Speech Finalist Eagle Scout.

Personal life Chamitoff is married to Alison Chantal Caviness, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. They have two children.