Michael Lopez-Alegria
Encyclopedia
Michael Eladio "LA" López-Alegría (also known as Miguel López-Alegría) b. May 30, 1958, is a Spanish-American astronaut
; a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and one International Space Station
mission. He is known for having performed ten EVAs so far in his career, presently holding the #2 all-time EVA duration record and having the longest spaceflight of any American at the length 215 days, this time was spent on board the ISS from September 18, 2006 to April 21, 2007.
, Spain
and raised in Mission Viejo, California
. López-Alegría joined the United States Navy
, where he earned engineering degrees in 1980, and 1988 from the Naval Academy
and the Naval Postgraduate School
. His fleet experience in the Navy was at VQ-2 in Rota, Spain
and the Naval Test Pilot School, Pax River. A natural leader, he was the top Lieutenant of 60 in the second largest aviation wardroom in the Navy (105 officers). He made many connections with Spanish military and civilian personnel while in Spain for his first tour that have made him very popular and well-known in Spanish media. He was one of the few EP-3E pilots in the squadron to get time in the EA-3B.
in 1995; for several years afterwards he led NASA's International Space Station
(ISS) Crew Operations office before returning to space aboard STS-92
in 2000 and STS-113
in 2002. During flight STS-92, he tested the SAFER
jet backpack
with fellow astronaut Jeff Wisoff, flying up to 50 feet from the spacecraft.
López-Alegría served as an aquanaut
on the first NEEMO
(NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) crew aboard the Aquarius
underwater laboratory
in October 2001.
On 19 September 2006 López-Alegría docked with the ISS as Commander of Expedition 14
, having taken off from Baikonur
, Kazakhstan
on 18 September, onboard Soyuz TMA-9
. On Expedition 14
, he performed five spacewalks. On 21 April 2007 he undocked from the ISS and returned to Earth.
López-Alegría holds the all time American record for number of EVA
s (10) and total EVA duration (67 hours and 40 minutes). The previous record holder, Jerry L. Ross
had a total of 9 EVAs with a duration of 58 hours and 18 minutes. López-Alegría is the second most experienced spacewalker overall, behind Russia
's Anatoly Solovyev
. On April 2, 2007, López-Alegría set the record for the longest space mission of any American astronaut. When he landed on April 21, his time in space on a single mission was 215 days. (The longest space mission on record is that of Valeriy Polyakov
, who spent 437 days aboard the Russian space station Mir
in 1994 and 1995.)
, where he told the students about his space travel expedition.
López-Alegría currently serves as Flight Crew Operations Directorate Assistant Director for ISS. He is the primary interface (at the directorate level) to the ISS Program and works closely with the Astronaut Office EVA Branch and ISS Operations Branch.
At the end of his mission, he commanded the longest flight by a Soyuz spacecraft, making Expedition 14
the longest expedition thus far. López-Alegría broke the record for longest spaceflight by an American 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....
; a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and one 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...
mission. He is known for having performed ten EVAs so far in his career, presently holding the #2 all-time EVA duration record and having the longest spaceflight of any American at the length 215 days, this time was spent on board the ISS from September 18, 2006 to April 21, 2007.
Background
López-Alegría was born in MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and raised in Mission Viejo, California
Mission Viejo, California
Mission Viejo is a city located in southern Orange County, California, U.S. in the Saddleback Valley. Mission Viejo is considered one of the largest master-planned communities ever built under a single project in the United States, and is rivaled only by Highlands Ranch, Colorado, in its size...
. López-Alegría joined the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, where he earned engineering degrees in 1980, and 1988 from the Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
and the Naval Postgraduate School
Naval Postgraduate School
The Naval Postgraduate School is an accredited research university operated by the United States Navy. Located in Monterey, California, it grants master's degrees, Engineer's degrees and doctoral degrees...
. His fleet experience in the Navy was at VQ-2 in Rota, Spain
Rota, Spain
-External references:*, official website * On-line since 1999! News, premiere information, pictures, weather, etc. Into Spanish, English... ****- External links :...
and the Naval Test Pilot School, Pax River. A natural leader, he was the top Lieutenant of 60 in the second largest aviation wardroom in the Navy (105 officers). He made many connections with Spanish military and civilian personnel while in Spain for his first tour that have made him very popular and well-known in Spanish media. He was one of the few EP-3E pilots in the squadron to get time in the EA-3B.
Mission record
López-Alegría's first space mission was STS-73STS-73
STS-73 was a Space Shuttle program mission, during October–November 1995. The mission was the second mission for the United States Microgravity Laboratory. The crew, who spent 16 days in space, were broken up into 2 teams, the red team and the blue team...
in 1995; for several years afterwards he led NASA's 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...
(ISS) Crew Operations office before returning to space aboard STS-92
STS-92
STS-92 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Discovery. STS-92 marked the 100th mission of the Space Shuttle...
in 2000 and STS-113
STS-113
STS-113 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour. During the 14-day mission in late 2002, Endeavour and its crew extended the ISS backbone with the P1 truss and exchanged the Expedition 5 and Expedition 6 crews aboard the station...
in 2002. During flight STS-92, he tested the SAFER
Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue
Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue is a small, self-contained, propulsive backpack system used to provide free-flying mobility for a Space Shuttle or International Space Station crewmember during extra-vehicular activity...
jet backpack
Jet pack
Jet pack, rocket belt, rocket pack, and similar names are various types of devices, usually worn on the back, that are propelled by jets of escaping gases so as to allow a single user to fly....
with fellow astronaut Jeff Wisoff, flying up to 50 feet from the spacecraft.
López-Alegría served as an aquanaut
Aquanaut
An Aquanaut is any individual who remains underwater, exposed to the ambient pressure, long enough to come into equilibrium with his or her breathing media. Usually this is done in an underwater habitat on the seafloor for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to...
on the first NEEMO
NEEMO
NEEMO, an acronym for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, is a NASA program for studying human survival in the Aquarius underwater laboratory in preparation for future space exploration....
(NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) crew aboard 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...
underwater laboratory
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...
in October 2001.
On 19 September 2006 López-Alegría docked with the ISS as Commander of Expedition 14
Expedition 14
Expedition 14 was the 14th expedition to the International Space Station . Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006, 04:09 UTC, aboard Soyuz TMA-9. They joined Thomas Reiter, who had arrived at the ISS on 6 July 2006...
, having taken off from Baikonur
Baikonur
Baikonur , formerly known as Leninsk, is a city in Kyzylorda Province of Kazakhstan, rented and administered by the Russian Federation. It was constructed to service the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was officially renamed Baikonur by Russian president Boris Yeltsin on December 20, 1995.The shape of the...
, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
on 18 September, onboard Soyuz TMA-9
Soyuz TMA-9
-Crew notes:Daisuke Enomoto Was originally scheduled to be the spaceflight participant, but on on 21 August 2006, he was determined to be unfit for the flight due to medical reasons, and replaced by Anousheh Ansari, his back-up crew member.-Docking with ISS:...
. On Expedition 14
Expedition 14
Expedition 14 was the 14th expedition to the International Space Station . Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006, 04:09 UTC, aboard Soyuz TMA-9. They joined Thomas Reiter, who had arrived at the ISS on 6 July 2006...
, he performed five spacewalks. On 21 April 2007 he undocked from the ISS and returned to Earth.
López-Alegría holds the all time American record for number of EVA
Extra-vehicular activity
Extra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...
s (10) and total EVA duration (67 hours and 40 minutes). The previous record holder, Jerry L. Ross
Jerry L. Ross
Jerry Lynn Ross is a United States Air Force officer and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, making him the record holder for most spaceflights .-Personal:Ross is married to the former Karen S. Pearson of Sheridan, Indiana. They have two children...
had a total of 9 EVAs with a duration of 58 hours and 18 minutes. López-Alegría is the second most experienced spacewalker overall, behind Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
's Anatoly Solovyev
Anatoly Solovyev
Anatoly Yakovlevich Solovyev is a former Soviet pilot, cosmonaut, and Colonel. Solovyev holds the world record on the number of spacewalks performed , and accumulated time spent spacewalking .- Family :...
. On April 2, 2007, López-Alegría set the record for the longest space mission of any American astronaut. When he landed on April 21, his time in space on a single mission was 215 days. (The longest space mission on record is that of Valeriy Polyakov
Valeriy Polyakov
Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov is a former Russian cosmonaut. He is the holder of the record for the longest single spaceflight in human history,staying aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months during one trip....
, who spent 437 days aboard the Russian space station Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...
in 1994 and 1995.)
Promotional activities and current assignment
On October 19, 2007, López-Alegría visited his old high school Mission Viejo High SchoolMission Viejo High School
Mission Viejo High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Mission Viejo, California, United States, as part of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. The school has served the area since 1966. Students within its attendance boundaries live in western Mission...
, where he told the students about his space travel expedition.
López-Alegría currently serves as Flight Crew Operations Directorate Assistant Director for ISS. He is the primary interface (at the directorate level) to the ISS Program and works closely with the Astronaut Office EVA Branch and ISS Operations Branch.
List of EVAs
- 2000-10-16 7:07 hours STS-92STS-92STS-92 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Discovery. STS-92 marked the 100th mission of the Space Shuttle...
, EVA 2 - 2000-10-18 6:56 hours STS-92, EVA 4
- 2002-11-26 6:45 hours STS-113STS-113STS-113 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour. During the 14-day mission in late 2002, Endeavour and its crew extended the ISS backbone with the P1 truss and exchanged the Expedition 5 and Expedition 6 crews aboard the station...
, EVA 1 - 2002-11-28 6:10 hours STS-113, EVA 2
- 2002-11-30 7:00 hours STS-113, EVA 3
- 2006-11-22 7:39 hours ISS Expedition 14Expedition 14Expedition 14 was the 14th expedition to the International Space Station . Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006, 04:09 UTC, aboard Soyuz TMA-9. They joined Thomas Reiter, who had arrived at the ISS on 6 July 2006...
, EVA 1 - 2007-01-31 7:55 hours ISS Expedition 14, EVA 2
- 2007-02-04 7:11 hours ISS Expedition 14, EVA 3
- 2007-02-07 6:39 hours ISS Expedition 14, EVA 4
- 2007-02-22 6:18 hours ISS Expedition 14, EVA 5
At the end of his mission, he commanded the longest flight by a Soyuz spacecraft, making Expedition 14
Expedition 14
Expedition 14 was the 14th expedition to the International Space Station . Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006, 04:09 UTC, aboard Soyuz TMA-9. They joined Thomas Reiter, who had arrived at the ISS on 6 July 2006...
the longest expedition thus far. López-Alegría broke the record for longest spaceflight by an American astronaut.
Awards
| Ribbon | Description | Notes |
 |
National Defense Service Medal National Defense Service Medal The National Defense Service Medal is a military service medal of the United States military originally commissioned by President Dwight D. Eisenhower... |
with one award star |
 |
NASA Space Flight Medal | with three oak leaf clusters |