Richard Robert "Ricky" Arnold II (born November 26, 1963, in
Cheverly,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
) is an American educator and a
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 flew on Space Shuttle mission
STS-119, which launched March 15, 2009, and delivered the final set of solar arrays 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 ...
.
He launched again in 2018 to the ISS, onboard
Soyuz MS-08.
Arnold was raised in
Bowie, Maryland
Bowie () is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 58,329. Bowie has grown from a small railroad stop to the largest municipality in Prince George's County; i ...
and is married to Eloise Miller Arnold of Bowie. They have two daughters.
Education
*Bowie High School,
Bowie, Maryland
Bowie () is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 58,329. Bowie has grown from a small railroad stop to the largest municipality in Prince George's County; i ...
, 1981.
*B.S., Accounting,
Frostburg State University
Frostburg State University (FSU) is a public university in Frostburg, Maryland. The university is the only four-year institution of the University System of Maryland west of the Baltimore-Washington passageway in the state's Appalachian highlan ...
, Maryland, 1985.
*Completed teacher certification program at Frostburg State University, Maryland, 1988.
*M.S.,
Marine, Estuarine, & Environmental Sciences,
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
, 1992.
Organizations
*National Science Teachers Association
*International Technology Education Association
*National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Career
Arnold began working at the
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...
in 1987 as an Oceanographic Technician. Upon completing his teacher certification program, he accepted a position as a science teacher at John Hanson Middle School in Waldorf, Maryland. During his tenure, he completed a Masters program while conducting research in biostratigraphy at the Horn Point Environmental Laboratory in Cambridge, Maryland. Upon matriculation, Arnold spent another year working in the Marine Sciences including time at the Cape Cod National Seashore and aboard a sail training/oceanographic vessel headquartered in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. In 1993, Arnold joined the faculty at the
Casablanca American School in Casablanca, Morocco, teaching college preparatory Biology and Marine Environmental Science. During that time, he began presenting workshops at various international education conferences focusing on science teaching methodologies. In 1996, he and his family moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was employed as a middle and high school science teacher at the American International School. In 2001, Arnold was hired by
International Schools Services to teach middle school mathematics and science at the International School of Kuala Kencana operated by
PT Freeport Indonesia in
West Papua,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. In 2003, he accepted a similar teaching position at the American International School of Bucharest in Bucharest, Romania. Arnold was the guest of honor at the Bowie High School Class of 2009 graduation, delivering the commencement speech.
NASA career
Arnold was selected as a Mission Specialist-Educator by NASA in May 2004. In February 2006 he completed Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training,
T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. Upon completion of his training, Arnold was assigned to the Hardware Integration Team in the Space Station Branch working on technical issues with
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 ...
hardware. He worked on various technical assignments until he was assigned to the
STS-119 spaceflight.
In August 2007, Arnold served as an
aquanaut during the
NEEMO 13 project, an exploration research mission held in
Aquarius, the world's only
undersea research laboratory.
On September 19, 2011,
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 ...
announced that Arnold would participate in the
NEEMO 15 mission in October 2011 from the
DeepWorker submersible
A submersible is an underwater vehicle which needs to be transported and supported by a larger ship, watercraft or dock, platform. This distinguishes submersibles from submarines, which are self-supporting and capable of prolonged independent ope ...
. The DeepWorker is a small
submarine
A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
used as an underwater stand-in for the
Space Exploration Vehicle, which might someday be used to explore the surface of an
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
.
In 2016 Arnold participated in
ESA CAVES training in Sardinia (Italy) spending six nights underground simulating a mission exploring another planet.
STS-119
Arnold participated in 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 during the STS-119 mission.
The first EVA by
Steven Swanson and Arnold occurred on March 19, 2009, with a duration of 6 hours 7 minutes. After Canadarm2 was released S6 and moved away, the spacewalkers plugged in power and data cables to connect the new hardware. The two spacewalkers also removed launch locks, stowed a keel pin, removed and jettisoned four thermal covers, and deployed the blanket boxes that hold the solar arrays in place during launch. The first spacewalk was devoted to installing the station's new truss segment and preparing the segment's solar arrays for unfolding on the eighth day of the mission.
Arnold performed his second EVA on March 23, 2009, with
Joseph Acaba with a duration of 6 hours 27 minutes, to move one of the station's two Crew and Equipment and Translation Aid - or CETA - carts. The carts were moved to the port side of the station's truss during the previous mission to give the robotic arm's mobile transporter the best possible access to the starboard truss for the installation of the new truss segment and solar arrays. With that work done, one of the carts was moved back to the station's port side, leaving a cart for use on either side of the truss. The CETA-cart also got a new coupler. The EVA also included lubricating the end effector capture snares on the station's robot arm - similar to what was done to the other end on an STS-126 spacewalk in late 2008. This has been proven to prevent the snare from snagging or not returning snugly into its groove inside the latching mechanism.
Expedition 55/56
In March 2017, Arnold was assigned to ISS Expeditions 55/56. He launched on
Soyuz MS-08 on March 21, 2018.
On March 29, 2018, Arnold performed his first EVA of the mission, with crewmate
Drew Feustel. They installed wireless communications equipment on the station's Tranquility module to enhance payload data processing for the experiment
ECOSTRESS (Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station). They also swapped out high-definition video cameras on the port truss of the station's backbone and removed aging hoses from a cooling component on the station's truss. The spacewalk had a duration of 6 hours and 10 minutes, bringing Arnold's cumulative EVA time to over 18 hours.
Arnold returned to Earth on October 4, 2018.
References
External links
*
Spacefacts biography of Richard Arnold
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Richard R.
1963 births
Living people
Educator astronauts
Schoolteachers from Maryland
Aquanauts
Frostburg State University alumni
University of Maryland, College Park alumni
NASA civilian astronauts
Space Shuttle program astronauts
Spacewalkers