Andrew Thomas

Andrew Thomas's Biography

Andrew "Andy" Sydney Withiel Thomas (born 18 December 1951 in Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian-born U.S. aerospace engineer and a NASA astronaut.
In August 1993, following one year of training, Andy was appointed a member of the NASA astronaut corps and was qualified for assignment as a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle flight crews.
In June 1995, Andy Thomas was named Payload Commander for STS-77, subsequently making his first space flight on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour in May 1996. Although Paul D. Scully-Power had entered orbit as an oceanographer in 1985, Thomas was Australia's first official astronaut to enter space.
Andy Thomas, then undertook long-duration flight training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia before serving 130 days as Board Engineer 2 onboard the Russian space station Mir in 1998, launching on STS-89 and returning on STS-91. His third space flight, STS-102, increased his time spent in space to more than 177 days. For his fourth flight, he was a Mission Specialist on the Discovery "return to flight" mission (STS-114) that launched at 14:39 UTC, 26 July 2005.
He has served as Deputy Chief of NASA's Astronaut Office.