Kjell Norwood Lindgren ( Chinese: 林其兒;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

: ''Lín Qí'ér''; born January 23, 1973) is an American

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 ...

who was selected in June 2009 as a member of the

NASA Astronaut Group 20 NASA Astronaut Group 20 (The Chumps) saw the training of nine mission specialists, and five international mission specialists to become NASA astronauts. These 14 astronauts began training in August 2009 and officially graduated as astronauts on 4 ...

. He launched to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS) as part of Expedition 44/ 45 on July 22, 2015.

Early life and education

Lindgren was born in

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

, Taiwan, in 1973 to a Taiwanese mother and American father in the US Air Force; his Chinese name is Lin Qi'er ( zh, t=林其兒, p=Lín Qí'ér). His family later moved to the Midwestern United States, but he spent most of his childhood in England. He attended

Lakenheath Lakenheath is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk (district), West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It has a population of 4,691 according to the 2011 Census, and is situated close to the county boundaries of both Nor ...

American High School for a year before moving back to the United States, where he graduated from James W. Robinson Secondary School in

Fairfax, Virginia Fairfax ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia and the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 24,146. Fairfax is pa ...

in 1991. After entering the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. I ...

, he joined the Air Force Parachuting Team. In 1995, 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 ...

(BS) degree in biology with a minor in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

from the Air Force Academy. In 1996, he received 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 ...

(MS) degree in cardiovascular physiology from

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

(CSU), in part for his work completing cardiovascular countermeasure research at NASA's Space Physiology Lab. He subsequently obtained a

Doctorate of Medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

(MD) from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

in 2002, and went on to complete a three-year residency in emergency medicine at

Hennepin County Medical Center Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) is a Level I adult and pediatric trauma center and safety net hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the county seat of Hennepin County. The primary 484-bed facility is on six city blocks across the street fro ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. In 2006, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship and a Master of Health Informatics (MHI) at 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 ...

. He also completed a

Master of Public Health The Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), Master of Medical Science in Public Health (MMSPH) and the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), International Masters for Health Leadership (IMHL) are interdisciplinary profes ...

(MPH) at the

University of Texas Medical Branch The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a Public university, public Academic health science centre, academic health science center in Galveston, Texas, United States. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the olde ...

in 2007 and a residency in

aerospace medicine Aviation medicine, also called flight medicine or aerospace medicine, is a preventive medicine, preventive or occupational medicine in which the patients/subjects are pilots, aircrews, or astronauts. The specialty strives to treat or prevent cond ...

in 2008.

NASA career

He began working for

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 ...

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. ...

in 2007. He went on to support ISS training operation at

Star City, Russia Star City () is an area in Zvyozdny gorodok (urban-type settlement), Zvyozdny gorodok, Moscow Oblast, Russia, which has since the 1960s been home to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC). Officially, the area was known as "closed ...

and became the deputy crew surgeon for STS-130 and

Expedition 24 Expedition 24 was the 24th long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Expedition 24 initially had two planned spacewalks, one Russian and one American Extra-vehicular Activity (EVA). The U.S. EVA was re-planned and a second ...

. In June 2009, he was one of nine astronaut candidates selected by NASA out of 3500 applications and began training as part of

. The nine Americans, as well as two

Canadian Space Agency The Canadian Space Agency (CSA; ) is the national space agency of Canada, established in 1990 by the ''Canadian Space Agency Act''. The President of the Canadian Space Agency, president is Lisa Campbell (civil servant), Lisa Campbell, who took ...

candidates and three

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

candidates, started training at the

in August 2009. The 14 candidates carried trained in various different fields including

T-38 T38 or T-38 may refer to: Aviation * Allison T38, an American turboprop aircraft engine * Northrop T-38 Talon, an American jet trainer aircraft * Slingsby T.38 Grasshopper, a British training glider Other uses * T38 (classification), a disabi ...

flight training,

Extravehicular activity 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 ...

training, survival,

operations and other various skills. The group completed their training and Lindgren and his 13 classmates became eligible for future flight assignments on November 4, 2011. In between finishing training, he worked in the Spacecraft Communicator and

Extravehicular Activity 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 ...

branches of NASA, and he was the Spacecraft Communicator lead for Expedition 30. From June 18, 2017, to June 27, 2017, Lindgren was commander of the NEEMO 22 mission to the

Aquarius Reef Base The Aquarius Reef Base is an underwater habitat located off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Florida, United States. It is the world's only undersea research laboratory and it is operated by Florida International Univer ...

, located 19 meters underwater off the coast of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. The NEEMO 22 mission focused on both exploration spacewalks and objectives related to the International Space Station and deep space missions. As an analogue for future planetary science concepts and strategies, the mission's crew also performed marine science under the guidance of Florida International University's marine science department. Objectives for the crew also included testing spaceflight countermeasure equipment, technology for precisely tracking equipment in habitat and studies of body composition and sleep. The crew also assessed hardware sponsored by ESA that will help crew members evacuate someone who has been injured on a future lunar spacewalk.

Expedition 44/45

In 2013, he began training at the Gagarin Space Center and was assigned as backup flight engineer for Expedition 42/ 43 which launched on Soyuz TMA-15M. He was later assigned to Expedition 44/ 45 as a flight engineer. On July 22, 2015, Lindgren launched on his first mission to the ISS alongside Russian cosmonaut

Oleg Kononenko Oleg Dmitriyevich Kononenko (; ; born 21 June 1964) is a Russian cosmonaut. He has flown to the International Space Station five times as a flight engineer for Expedition 17 aboard Soyuz TMA-12, as a flight engineer on Expedition 30 and comm ...

and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

astronaut Kimiya Yui onboard Soyuz TMA-17M. Six hours later the trio docked to the ISS, officially joining Expedition 44 alongside

Soyuz TMA-16M Soyuz TMA-16M was a 2015 flight to the International Space Station.Gennady Padalka Gennady Ivanovich Padalka (; born 21 June 1958 in Krasnodar, Soviet Union) is a Russian Air Force officer and Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka is the only person to have served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS) four times. He previ ...

and Mikhail Kornienko of

Roscosmos The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (), is a State corporation (Russia), state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space science, space flights, List of space agencies, c ...

and Scott Kelly of NASA. In November 2015, while on the ISS, Kjell played a set of

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, N ...

manufactured by McCallum Bagpipes Ltd as a memorial to Victor Hurst, who died in October of that year. McCallum Bagpipes was chosen to manufacture the bagpipes because they make them in plastic, which is easily sanitized and transported, ideal for space exploration. This is thought to be the first time the Great Highland bagpipes have been played in space. Towards the end of Expedition 44, Soyuz TMA-18M docked with the ISS carrying Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen and KazCosmos cosmonaut

Aidyn Aimbetov Aidyn Akanuly Aimbetov (, ''Aidyn Aqanūly Aiymbetov''; , born 27 July 1972) is a Kazakh cosmonaut, the first flying as national of independent Kazakhstan. The first from Kazakhstan was Toktar Aubakirov (1991). Family Aimbetov is married and has ...

. This was unusual as it occurred before the departure of

Soyuz TMA-16M Soyuz TMA-16M was a 2015 flight to the International Space Station.full year, Soyuz TMA-16M landed with Paldlka, Mogensen and Aimbetov nine days after the launch of Soyuz TMA-18M, returning the ISS to normal six crew operations. On October 28, 2015, Lindgren ventured outside of the ISS with Scott Kelly for his first

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 ...

, the two spacewalkers completed several tasks including changing an insulating unit on one of the station's Main Bus Switching Units (MBSU), carried out some maintenance on one of Canadarm-2's Latching End Effector's and prepared both of the station's "open"

Pressurized Mating Adapter A Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA) is a component used on the International Space Station (ISS) to convert the Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) interface used to connect ISS modules to an APAS-95 spacecraft docking port. Three PMAs are attached ...

s ahead of the installation of two

International Docking Adapter The International Docking Adapter (IDA) is a spacecraft docking system adapter developed to convert APAS-95 to support docking with spacecraft that implement the International Docking System Standard. The IDA uses NASA Docking System (NDS) hard ...

s. On November 6, 2015, Lindgren ventured outside the station with Kelly again for his second spacewalk. Over the course of the 7 hour and 48-minute spacewalk, the two astronauts worked to restore a portion of the ISS's cooling system to its primary configuration, returning ammonia coolant levels to normal in the primary and backup radiator arrays. On December 11, 2015, he returned to Earth alongside Kononenko and Yui following 141 days in space, the Soyuz touched down on the

Kazakh Steppe The Kazakh Steppe ( ), also known as the Great Steppe or Great Betpak-Dala, Dala ( ), is a vast region of open grassland in Central Asia, covering areas in northern Kazakhstan and adjacent areas of Russia. It lies east of the Pontic–Caspian step ...

at night, which is rare for the Soyuz. Following landing, Lindgren and Yui returned to the

in Houston to rendezvous with their families.

Dragon 2

Lindgren served as the only member of the backup crew for the SpaceX's Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, the first test flight of SpaceX's

Crew Dragon Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which consi ...

spacecraft. He trained as backup for both crew members, NASA astronauts

Douglas Hurley Douglas Gerald Hurley (born October 21, 1966) is an American engineer, former Marine Corps pilot, and former NASA astronaut. He piloted Space Shuttle missions STS-127 (July 2009) and STS-135 (July 2011), the final flight of the Space Shuttle prog ...

and Robert Behnken, and was ready to take either the Spacecraft Commander or Joint Operations Commander seat if need be. He was also the commander of the backup crew for

SpaceX Crew-1 SpaceX Crew-1 (was also known as USCV-1 or simply Crew-1) was the first operational crewed flight of a SpaceX Dragon 2, Crew Dragon spacecraft and the maiden flight of the Crew Dragon Resilience, Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' spacecraft. It was ...

, the first operational flight of Crew Dragon spacecraft and first operational flight of the

Commercial Crew Program The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides Private spaceflight, commercially operated human spaceflight, crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between t ...

. On March 19, 2019, Lindgren started five weeks of training on the ISS

Russian Orbital Segment The Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) is the name given to the components of the International Space Station (ISS) constructed in Russia and operated by the Russian Roscosmos. The ROS handles Guidance, Navigation, and Control for the entire Station ...

for the flight at the

Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC; Russian: Центр подготовки космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина) is a Russian training facility responsible for trai ...

alongside NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover. In February 2021, he was assigned as commander of

SpaceX Crew-4 SpaceX Crew-4 was the SpaceX Dragon 2, Crew Dragon's fourth NASA Commercial Crew Program, Commercial Crew operational flight, and its seventh overall crewed orbital flight. The mission launched on 27 April 2022 at 07:52 UTC before docking with t ...

, which was his second long-duration mission to the ISS. He flew alongside NASA astronaut Bob Hines, who was assigned as pilot. They were joined by mission specialists

Samantha Cristoforetti Samantha Cristoforetti (; born 26 April 1977) is an Italian European Astronaut Corps, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, former Italian Air Force pilot and engineer. She is the second of two Women in space, women sent into space by ESA and ...

of ESA and Jessica Watkins of NASA. Crew-4 launched on April 27, 2022 and docked later that day. It splashed down off the coast of Florida with Lindgren on board on October 14, 2022 after 170 days in orbit.

Personal life

Lindgren is married to Kristiana Lindgren and has three children. He has said that he enjoys running, SCUBA diving, reading, movies, photography, amateur astronomy, working with computers, and church activities. Lindgren is also a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

fan,Interview: Kjell Lindgren of NASA
by Dan Brooks, at StarWars.com; published February 23, 2015; retrieved August 30, 2015 and in 2015 was a Special Guest at the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention while aboard the ISS.Lindgren leaves for Sasquan
; by Steven H Silver; at the

SF Site ''SF Site'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine edited by Rodger Turner. It is among the oldest of websites dedicated to science fiction and primarily publishes book reviews. It has won the Locus Award and received nominations for ...

; published July 23, 2015; retrieved August 30, 2015 He participated in the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...

ceremony as a guest presenter via

videoconferencing Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...

, announcing

Cixin Liu Liu Cixin (, pronounced ; born 23 June 1963) is a Chinese computer engineer and science fiction writer. In English translations of his works, his name is given as Cixin Liu. He is sometimes called "''Da'' Liu" ("Big Liu") by his fellow sc ...

's win of the 2015

Hugo Award for Best Novel The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year by the World Science Fiction Society for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is ava ...

.Hugo Award to open new chapter for Chinese sci-fi
, by Yang Yang, in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

''; published August 25, 2015; retrieved August 30, 2015 He was also a special guest at

Worldcon Worldcon, officially the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during Wor ...

in Helsinki 2017. In 2017, he also served as the Toastmaster for the

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of pr ...

s in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. Lindgren was a

Boy Scout A Scout, Boy Scout, Girl Scout or, in some countries, a Pathfinder is a participant in the Scout Movement, usually aged 10–18 years, who engage in learning scoutcraft and outdoor and other special interest activities. Some Scout organizatio ...

and attained the rank of

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of Scouting America. Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Scout rank has been earned by over ...

. During the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan in 2015, Lindgren talked to a small group of Scouts via radio from the

. The Scouts asked him various questions about daily life at the Space Station and space.

Amateur radio

Lindgren is a General class Ham Radio operator call sign KO5MOS. In October 2022 during his stay at the ISS Lindgren talked live and direct to students from the school at the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

base Esperanza in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

NASA video
/sup>An Astronaut Talked To Students At A School In Antarctica.
/ref>

References

External links

Spacefacts biography of Kjell N. Lindgren
* * Ful
WSJ to Outer Space
interview on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Science & Film
interview with Kjell Lindgren about IMAX's ''A Beautiful Planet'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindgren, Kjell N. 1973 births 21st-century American surgeons American people of Swedish descent American people of Taiwanese descent American surgeons Aquanauts Colorado State University alumni Crew members of the International Space Station Living people Military personnel from Texas NASA civilian astronauts People from Taipei People from League City, Texas Physician astronauts Robinson Secondary School alumni Spacewalkers SpaceX astronauts United States Air Force Academy alumni University of Colorado alumni University of Minnesota alumni University of Texas Medical Branch alumni Chinese astronauts