Duane Gene "Digger" Carey (born April 30, 1957) is a retired lieutenant colonel in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

and a former

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

. He piloted the space shuttle ''Columbia'' on March 1, 2002, during a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

Education

Carey graduated from Highland Park High School in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1975. He received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

Aerospace Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

and

Mechanics Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...

, and a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

degree in Aerospace Engineering from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in 1981 and 1982, respectively.

Flying career

Carey received his commission from the

Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps The Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps (AFROTC) is one of the three primary commissioning sources for officers in the United States Air Force and United States Space Force, the other two being the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA ...

in 1981 and graduated from Undergraduate Pilot Training in 1983. He flew the

A-10A Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 , also infamously known under the nickname , is a single-seat, twinjet, twin-turbofan, straight wing, straight-wing, Subsonic aircraft, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Aircraft, Fairchild Republic ...

during tours at England Air Force Base,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, and

Suwon Air Base Suwon Air Base is a Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) base near Suwon city. Units The base is home to the ROKAF's 10th Fighter Wing (제10전투비행단), comprising: *101st Fighter Squadron flying KF-5E/KF-5F/F-5F *153rd Fighter Squadron f ...

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. He completed

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

training in 1988 and was assigned to Torrejon Air Base, Spain. In 1991, he was selected to attend the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. After graduation in 1992, he worked as an F-16 experimental test pilot and System Safety Officer at Edwards. He has logged over 4,300 hours in more than 35 types of aircraft.

NASA career

Carey was selected as an astronaut candidate by

in April 1996. He reported to the NASA

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...

in August 1996. After the completion of two years of training and evaluation, he was qualified for flight assignment as a pilot. Initially, he was assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Spacecraft Systems/Operations Branch. In 2002, he served as the pilot of ''Columbia'' on STS-109, logging over 10 days in space. STS-109 (March 1–12, 2002). STS-109 was the fourth

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

(HST) servicing mission. The crew of STS-109 successfully upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope, leaving it with a new power unit, a new camera and new solar arrays. HST servicing and upgrade was accomplished by four crew members during five EVAs on five consecutive days. Carey also helped document the EVA activities with video and still images. STS-109 orbited the Earth 165 times, and covered 3.9 million miles in over 262 hours. Carey retired from NASA in October 2004.

Personal life

He is married to Cheryl Ann Tobritzhofer, also of Saint Paul, Minnesota. They have two children. He is a member of the National Space Society and

American Motorcyclist Association The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is an American nonprofit organization of more than 200,000 motorcyclists that organizes numerous motorcycling activities and campaigns for motorcyclists' legal rights. Its motto, mission statement is "t ...

, and the Air Force Association.

Honors

Carey has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with

Valor Device Valor, valour, or valorous may mean: * Courage, a similar meaning * Virtue ethics, roughly "courage in defense of a noble cause" Entertainment * Valor Kand, a member of the band Christian Death * ''Valor'' (TV series), an American drama series ...

and three Air Medals, as well as the American Motorcyclist Association Hazel Kolb Brighter Image Award.

References

External links

Duane Carey personal website
*

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carey, Duane G. 1957 births Living people American test pilots Aviators from Minnesota Military personnel from Saint Paul, Minnesota Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Recipients of the Air Medal United States Air Force astronauts United States Air Force officers University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School alumni Space Shuttle program astronauts Military personnel from Minnesota