Gregory Chamitoff
Encyclopedia
Gregory Errol Chamitoff is an engineer
and NASA
astronaut
. He was assigned to Expedition 17
and flew to the International Space Station
on STS-124
, launching 31 May 2008. He was in space 198 days, joining Expedition 18
after Expedition 17 left the station, and returned to Earth 30 November 2008 on STS-126
. Chamitoff served as a mission specialist on the STS-134
mission.
, Quebec, Canada to a Jewish family of Russian origin and is married to Alison Chantal Caviness, M.D.,M.P.H.,Ph.D. They have two children, Natasha and Dimitri. His mother Shari Chamitoff and brother Ken Chamitoff live in southern California. His father was the late Ashley "Al" Chamitoff. His wife's parents are Madeline Caviness, Ph.D., and Verne Caviness, M.D., Ph.D.
Chamitoff's recreational interests include scuba diving
, backpacking
, flying
, skiing
, racquetball
, Aikido
, juggling
, magic
and guitar
. He is a certified divemaster
and instrument rated pilot. Chamitoff also enjoys chess
and has played games with people on earth while living in the ISS.
His education includes:
, designed flight control upgrades for the Space Shuttle autopilot, and worked on the attitude control system for Space Station Freedom. His doctoral thesis developed a new approach for robust intelligent flight control of hypersonic vehicles. From 1993 to 1995, Chamitoff was a visiting professor at the University of Sydney
, Australia, where he led a research group in the development of autonomous flight vehicles, and taught courses in flight dynamics and control. He has published numerous papers on aircraft and spacecraft guidance and control, trajectory optimization
, and Mars mission design.
Selected by NASA for the Astronaut Class of 1998, Chamitoff started training in August 1998 and qualified for flight assignment as a Mission Specialist in 2000. Since then, Chamitoff has worked in the Space Station Robotics branch, been the lead CAPCOM for ISS Expedition 9
, acted as Crew Support Astronaut for ISS Expedition 6
, and helped develop onboard procedures and displays for Space Station system operations.
In July 2002, Chamitoff was a crew-member on the Aquarius
undersea research habitat
for 9 days as part of the NEEMO 3 mission (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations).
He served as the backup Expedition 15/16 Flight Engineer 2 and STS-117
/STS-120
Mission Specialist 5 for Clayton Anderson
.
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.
As part of his personal allowance, Chamitoff brought the first bagel
s into space, 3 bags (18 sesame seed bagels
) of Fairmount Bagel
s with him, from his cousin's bagel bakery.
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 the first science-fiction movie made in space, "Apogee of Fear
".
Chamitoff served as a mission specialist on STS-134
.
; 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
.
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
and NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
. He was assigned to Expedition 17
Expedition 17
Expedition 17 was the 17th expedition to the International Space Station .The first two crew members, Sergey Volkov, and Oleg Kononenko were launched on 8 April 2008, aboard the Soyuz TMA-12...
and flew to the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
on STS-124
STS-124
STS-124 was a Space Shuttle mission, flown by Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station. Discovery launched on 31 May 2008 at 17:02 EDT, moved from an earlier scheduled launch date of 25 May 2008, and landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility, at 11:15...
, launching 31 May 2008. He was in space 198 days, joining Expedition 18
Expedition 18
Expedition 18 was the 18th permanent crew of the International Space Station .The first two crew members, Michael Fincke, and Yuri Lonchakov were launched on 12 October 2008, aboard Soyuz TMA-13. With them was astronaut Sandra Magnus, who joined the Expedition 18 crew after launching on STS-126 and...
after Expedition 17 left the station, and returned to Earth 30 November 2008 on STS-126
STS-126
-Crew notes:Originally scheduled to fly on STS-126 was Joan E. Higginbotham, who was a mission specialist on STS-116. On 21 November 2007, NASA announced a change in the crew manifest due to Higginbotham's decision to leave NASA to take a job in the private sector. Stephen G...
. Chamitoff served as a mission specialist on the STS-134
STS-134
STS-134 was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The mission marked the 25th and final flight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. Mark Kelly served as the mission commander...
mission.
Personal
Chamitoff was born 6 August 1962 in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec, Canada to a Jewish family of Russian origin and is married to Alison Chantal Caviness, M.D.,M.P.H.,Ph.D. They have two children, Natasha and Dimitri. His mother Shari Chamitoff and brother Ken Chamitoff live in southern California. His father was the late Ashley "Al" Chamitoff. His wife's parents are Madeline Caviness, Ph.D., and Verne Caviness, M.D., Ph.D.
Chamitoff's recreational interests include scuba diving
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
, backpacking
Backpacking (wilderness)
Backpacking combines the activities of hiking and camping for an overnight stay in backcountry wilderness...
, flying
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
, skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
, racquetball
Racquetball
For other sports often called "paddleball", see Paddleball .Racquetball is a racquet sport played with a hollow rubber ball in an indoor or outdoor court...
, Aikido
Aikido
is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to...
, juggling
Juggling
Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. This may be one object or many objects, at the same time with one or many hands. Jugglers often refer...
, magic
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. He is a certified divemaster
Divemaster
A Divemaster is a diving qualification used throughout most of the world in scuba diving for a diver who has overall responsibility for a group of divers...
and instrument rated pilot. Chamitoff also enjoys chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
and has played games with people on earth while living in the ISS.
His education includes:
- Blackford High School, San Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, 1980. - B.S., Electrical Engineering, California Polytechnic State UniversityCalifornia Polytechnic State UniversityCalifornia Polytechnic State University, or Cal Poly, is a public university located in San Luis Obispo, California, United States. The university is one of two polytechnic campuses in the 23-member California State University system....
, 1984. - M.S., Aeronautical Engineering, California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, 1985. - Ph.D., Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, 1992. - M.S., Planetary Geology (Space Science), University of Houston–Clear LakeUniversity of Houston–Clear LakeThe University of Houston–Clear Lake is a state university, and is a component institution of the University of Houston System. Its campus spans 524-acre in Pasadena, with a satellite campus in Pearland. Founded in 1971, UHCL has an enrollment of more than 8,000 students...
, 2002.
Career
As an undergraduate student at Cal Poly, Chamitoff taught lab courses in circuit design and worked summer internships at Four Phase Systems, Atari Computers, Northern Telecom, and IBM. He developed a self-guided robot for his undergraduate thesis project. While at MIT and Draper Labs (1985–1992), Chamitoff worked on several NASA projects. He performed stability analyses for the deployment of the Hubble Space TelescopeHubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
, designed flight control upgrades for the Space Shuttle autopilot, and worked on the attitude control system for Space Station Freedom. His doctoral thesis developed a new approach for robust intelligent flight control of hypersonic vehicles. From 1993 to 1995, Chamitoff was a visiting professor at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
, Australia, where he led a research group in the development of autonomous flight vehicles, and taught courses in flight dynamics and control. He has published numerous papers on aircraft and spacecraft guidance and control, trajectory optimization
Trajectory optimization
Trajectory optimization is the process of designing a trajectory that minimizes or maximizes some measure of performance within prescribed constraint boundaries...
, and Mars mission design.
NASA career
In 1995, Chamitoff joined the Motion Control Systems Group in the Mission Operations Directorate at the Johnson Space Center, where he developed software applications for spacecraft attitude control monitoring, prediction, analysis, and maneuver optimization.Selected by NASA for the Astronaut Class of 1998, Chamitoff started training in August 1998 and qualified for flight assignment as a Mission Specialist in 2000. Since then, Chamitoff has worked in the Space Station Robotics branch, been the lead CAPCOM for ISS Expedition 9
Expedition 9
Expedition 9 was the 9th expedition to the International Space Station.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Perigee: 384 km*Apogee: 396 km*Inclination: 51.6°*Period: 92 minthumb|left|250px|Edward M...
, acted as Crew Support Astronaut for ISS Expedition 6
Expedition 6
Expedition 6 was the sixth expedition to the International Space Station. It was the last three man crew to reside on the station until the arrival of STS-121...
, and helped develop onboard procedures and displays for Space Station system operations.
In July 2002, Chamitoff was a crew-member on the Aquarius
Aquarius (laboratory)
The NOAA Aquarius Reef Base is an underwater habitat located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, adjacent to Conch Reef. It is one of the few underwater research facilities in the world dedicated to science...
undersea research habitat
Underwater habitat
Underwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping...
for 9 days as part of the NEEMO 3 mission (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations).
He served as the backup Expedition 15/16 Flight Engineer 2 and STS-117
STS-117
- Crew Notes :The initial crew manifest before the Columbia accident was:Astronaut Mark Polansky was originally slated to pilot this mission, but was moved to STS-116, which he commanded...
/STS-120
STS-120
-Crew notes:As commander of STS-120, Pamela Melroy became the second woman to command a space shuttle mission. Additionally, the Expedition 16 crew that received STS-120 was commanded by Peggy Whitson, the first female ISS commander...
Mission Specialist 5 for Clayton Anderson
Clayton Anderson
Clayton Conrad Anderson is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. Launched on STS-117, he replaced Sunita Williams on June 10, 2007 as a member of the ISS Expedition 15 crew.-Education:...
.
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
STS-124
STS-124 was a Space Shuttle mission, flown by Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station. Discovery launched on 31 May 2008 at 17:02 EDT, moved from an earlier scheduled launch date of 25 May 2008, and landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility, at 11:15...
. He was Flight Engineer 2 and Science Officer on Expedition 17
Expedition 17
Expedition 17 was the 17th expedition to the International Space Station .The first two crew members, Sergey Volkov, and Oleg Kononenko were launched on 8 April 2008, aboard the Soyuz TMA-12...
. He returned home as a Mission Specialist on STS-126
STS-126
-Crew notes:Originally scheduled to fly on STS-126 was Joan E. Higginbotham, who was a mission specialist on STS-116. On 21 November 2007, NASA announced a change in the crew manifest due to Higginbotham's decision to leave NASA to take a job in the private sector. Stephen G...
, completing a tour that lasted six months.
As part of his personal allowance, Chamitoff brought the first bagel
Bagel
A bagel is a bread product, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from yeasted wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior...
s into space, 3 bags (18 sesame seed bagels
Montreal-style bagel
The Montreal bagel, , is a distinctive variety of hand-made and wood-fired baked bagel. In contrast to the New York-style bagel, the Montreal bagel is smaller, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood-fired oven...
) of Fairmount Bagel
Fairmount Bagel
Fairmount Bagel is the original Montreal bagel bakery in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.It was opened by 1919 by Russian immigrant Isadore Shlafman, whose hand-rolled recipe quickly became a staple in the Mile End community...
s with him, from his cousin's bagel bakery.
While Richard Garriott was aboard the ISS at the beginning of Expedition 18
Expedition 18
Expedition 18 was the 18th permanent crew of the International Space Station .The first two crew members, Michael Fincke, and Yuri Lonchakov were launched on 12 October 2008, aboard Soyuz TMA-13. With them was astronaut Sandra Magnus, who joined the Expedition 18 crew after launching on STS-126 and...
, Chamitoff and Garriott filmed the first magic show in Space, and along with Yury Lonchakov, Michael Fincke and Richard Garriott
Richard Garriott
Richard Allen Garriott is a British-American video game developer and entrepreneur.He is also known as his alter egos Lord British in Ultima and General British in Tabula Rasa...
, filmed the first science-fiction movie made in space, "Apogee of Fear
Apogee of Fear
Apogee of Fear is an unreleased science-fiction narrative motion picture made in space. Filmed by Richard Garriott from a script and production elements he contracted from fantasy novelist Tracy Hickman, the film's principal photography was accomplished during Garriott's time aboard the...
".
Chamitoff served as a mission specialist on STS-134
STS-134
STS-134 was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The mission marked the 25th and final flight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier to the International Space Station. Mark Kelly served as the mission commander...
.
Awards and honors
AIAA Associate Fellow; AIAA Technical Excellence Award; NASA Silver Snoopy awardSilver Snoopy award
The Silver Snoopy award is a special honor awarded to NASA employees and contractors for outstanding achievements related to human flight safety or mission success...
; NASA/USA Space Flight Awareness Award; C.S. Draper Laboratory Graduate Fellowship; IEEE Graduate Fellowship; Tau Beta Pi
Tau Beta Pi
The Tau Beta Pi Association is the oldest engineering honor society in the United States and the second oldest collegiate honor society in America. It honors engineering students who have shown a history of academic achievement as well as a commitment to personal and professional integrity...
Honor Society Fellowship; Phi Kappa Phi
Phi Kappa Phi
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is an honor society established 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study and to promote the "unity and democracy of education"...
Honor Society; Eta Kappa Nu
Eta Kappa Nu
Eta Kappa Nu is the electrical and computer engineering honor society of the IEEE, founded in October 1904 by Maurice L. Carr at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The organization currently has around 200 student chapters and about 3,000,000 members and is headquartered in Chicago,...
Honor Society; Applied Magnetics Scholarships; Academic Excellence Award; Most Outstanding Senior Award; Degree of Excellence and California Statewide Speech Finalist; Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
.