Gregory Errol Chamitoff (born 6 August 1962) is a Canadian-born American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and 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 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 STS-134 (ISS assembly sequence, ISS assembly flight ULF6) was the penultimate mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the 25th and last spaceflight of . This flight delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier ...

in 2011. STS-134 was the last of Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' which delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and completed the

US Orbital Segment The US Orbital Segment (USOS) is the name given to the components of the International Space Station (ISS) constructed and operated by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian ...

Early life and education

Chamitoff was born 6 August 1962 in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec, Canada. He was inspired to become an astronaut after watching the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

Moon landing at the age of six. His education includes: *Blackford High School,

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

, 1980. *B.S., Electrical Engineering,

California Polytechnic State University California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or Cal Poly) is a public university in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States, - Cites the location of the university and shows that the university ...

, 1984. *M.S., Aeronautical Engineering,

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

, 1985. *Ph.D., Aeronautics and Astronautics,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, 1992. *M.S., Physical Sciences (Space Science),

University of Houston–Clear Lake The University of Houston–Clear Lake (UHCL) is a public university in Pasadena, Texas, Pasadena and Houston in Texas, with branch campuses in Pearland, Texas, Pearland and Texas Medical Center. It is part of the University of Houston System, U ...

, 2002.

Early 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 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 ...

, 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 The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, 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 is the process of designing a trajectory that minimizes (or maximizes) some measure of performance while satisfying a set of constraints. Generally speaking, trajectory optimization is a technique for computing an open-loop ...

, 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 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. ...

, 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. He worked in the Space Station Robotics branch, was lead

CAPCOM is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...

for ISS Expedition 9, acted as crew support astronaut for ISS

Expedition 6 Expedition 6 was the sixth expedition to the International Space Station (25 November 2002 – 3 May 2003). It was the last three-man crew to reside on the station until the arrival of STS-121 in 2006, delivering the final astronaut of Expedi ...

, 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-117 (ISS assembly sequence, ISS assembly flight 13A) was a Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis, Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'', launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39, pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center on June ...

STS-120 STS-120 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) that launched on October 23, 2007, from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The mission is also referred to as ISS-10A by the ISS program. STS-120 delivered the ''Harmony ...

Mission Specialist 5 for Clayton Anderson.

Expedition 17 and 18

20180706 Garriott Juggling Johnson Space Center

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 was the 35th mission of Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. It went to the International Space Station on this mission. ''Discovery'' launched on May 31, 2008, at 17:02 EDT, moved from an earlier scheduled launch date of May 25, 2008, and land ...

. He was flight engineer 2 and science officer on Expedition 17. He returned home as a mission specialist on

STS-126 STS-126 was the one hundred and twenty-fourth NASA Space Shuttle mission, and twenty-second orbital flight of the ''Space Shuttle Endeavour'' (OV-105) to the International Space Station (ISS). The purpose of the mission, referred to as ULF2 by ...

, completing a tour that lasted six months. As part of his personal allowance, Chamitoff brought the first

bagel A bagel (; ; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. Bagels are traditionally made from yeasted wheat dough that is shaped by hand into a torus or ring, briefly boiled in water, and then baked. ...

s into space, 3 bags (18 sesame seed

bagels A bagel (; ; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. Bagels are traditionally made from yeasted wheat dough that is shaped by hand into a torus or ring, briefly boiled in water, and then baked. T ...

) of Fairmount Bagels with him, from his cousin's bagel bakery. 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 The Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellite (SPHERES) are a series of miniaturized satellites developed by MIT's Space Systems Laboratory for NASA and US Military, to be used as a low-risk, extensible test bed for t ...

during his mission, he founded the

Zero Robotics Zero Robotics is an international high school Computer Programming, programming competition where students control robotic SPHERES (Synchronised Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) aboard the International Space Station. E ...

competition, where high school students program the robots.

STS-134

Chamitoff served as a mission specialist on

, the penultimate Space Shuttle mission, during which he made two

spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environme ...

s, 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 Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States, situated in East-Central Texas in the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin, ...

. He instructs senior design, human spaceflight operations, and dynamics and controls for aerospace vehicles. Chamitoff has also served as the Lawrence Hargrave Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at the

, Australia.

Awards and honors

Chamitoff has received the following honors and awards: *California Astronaut Hall of Fame *NASA Distinguished Service Medal *

NASA Exceptional Service Medal The NASA Exceptional Service Medal is an award granted to U.S. government employees for significant sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creative ability that clearly demonstrates substantial improvement in engineering, a ...

*NASA Space Flight Medal *Honored Alumnus CalPoly *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 The Tau Beta Pi Association (commonly Tau Beta Pi, , or TBP) is the oldest engineering honor society and the second oldest collegiate honor society in the United States. It honors engineering students in American universities who have shown a ...

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. Chamitoff's recreational interests include

scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...

backpacking Backpacking may refer to: * Backpacking (travel), low-cost, independent, international travel * Backpacking (hiking), trekking and camping overnight in the wilderness * Ultralight backpacking, a style of wilderness backpacking with an emphasis on ...

, flying,

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase vel ...

Aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art which is split into many different styles including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai, and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practic ...

juggling Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...

, magic and

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

. He is a certified

divemaster A divemaster (DM) is a role that includes organising and leading recreational dives, particularly in a professional capacity, and is a qualification used in many parts of the world in recreational scuba diving for a diver who has supervisory respo ...

and instrument rated pilot. Chamitoff also enjoys

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

and has played games with people on earth while living in the ISS.

References

External links

*
Chamitoff interview

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamitoff, Gregory 1962 births Living people Anglophone Quebec people Aquanauts Canadian emigrants to the United States California Institute of Technology alumni California Polytechnic State University alumni Crew members of the International Space Station MIT School of Engineering alumni Scientists from Montreal University of Houston–Clear Lake alumni NASA civilian astronauts Space Shuttle program astronauts Spacewalkers