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Pedro DUQUE

Flight Engineer-1 of the Soyuz TMA TSC and ISS VC,
ESA Astronaut, Spain
1st Astronaut of Spain

DATA AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Born March 14, 1963 in Madrid, Spain.

EDUCATION:
Graduated with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronautics, Universid Politecnica, Madrid in 1986 and was trained for astronavigation.

FAMILY STATUS: Married, has three children.

SPECIAL HONOURS: Russian Order of Friendship awarded by President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation in March 1995 for participation in flight under Euromir-94 program; Great Cross of Aeronautical Merit awarded by the King of Spain in February 1999. "Principe de Asturials" prize for International Cooperation shared with three other astronauts.

HOBBY: Diving, swimming and cycling.

WORK EXPERIENCE:
Upon graduation from the University he joined GMV flight dynamics group (Grupo Mecanica de Vuelo). At the end of 1986 he moved to ESA's European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, where he worked in the Precise Orbit Determination Group.
From 1986 to 1992 he worked on the development of models, algorithms and implementation of SC orbit computation software. He was also part of the Flight Control Team for ESA's ERS-1 satellite and EURECA.
In May 1992 he was selected as the ESA astronaut candidate.
Till the end of 1992 he completed the Introductory and Basic Training Programs at the European Astronaut Center (EAC) in Cologne, Germany and a four-week training program at Yu.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia.
In January-July 1993 he passed a course of general space training at EAC.
Since August 1993 he returned to Yu.A. Gagarin CTC to train for the joint ESA-Russian Euromir 94 mission. Upon completion of training he was qualified as a cosmonaut researcher for missions onboard the Soyuz TM spacecraft and Mir Orbital Station.
From May to October 1994 he trained for a 30-day flight to Mir under EC-17 program and Euromir 94 mission within a backup crew together with Russian cosmonauts Yu.P. Gidzenko and S.V. Avdeev. On October 4, 1994 he was a backup of the Soyuz TM-20 SC cosmonaut researcher, namely Ulf Merbold, German astronaut, ESA.
During the joint flight under Euromir-94 program (from October 3 to November 4, 1994) he performed functions of Crew Coordinator at the Russian Mission Control Center (TsUP).
In January 1995 he began training at Yu.A. Gagarin CTC under the training program for a 135-day flight (Euromir-95 mission). He participated in flight of Thomas Reiter, German astronaut, ESA, onboard the Russian Complex Mir in the latter half of 1995.
In May 1995 he was assigned as an Alternate Payload Specialist for a flight onboard the Columbia Shuttle with laboratory LMS-1 (STS-78). During the mission from June 20 to July 7, 1996 he performed functions of the Crew Coordinator at Marchall Space Center, Huntsville, Alabama, USA.
From August 1996 to April 1998 Duque passed a course of general space training at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, USA and upon completion of which he was qualified as a Mission Specialist.
In November 1997 he was selected by ESA for STS-95 mission and in February 1998 NASA declared his assignment to this crew.
He performed his first space flight from October 29 to November 7, 1998 as a Mission Specialist of the Discovery Shuttle (STS-95) with the pressurized SPACEHAB module in the Shuttle payload bay. The following was deployed during the mission: the Spartan free-flying satellite for observation of the Sun and experimental platform for the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital System and also a large scope of experiments was carried out. The mission duration was 8 days 21 hr 43 min 57 s. Having performed this space flight onboard the Discovery Shuttle he became the first astronaut of Spain which in its turn became the 28-th country of the world a citizen of which performed a space flight.
From October 2002 to February 2003 he was in training at Yu.A. Gagarin CTC as a flight engineer-1 of the Soyuz TMA TSC of expedition crew-5, visiting crew (VC-5) of the International Space Station.
His flight is planned to be performed in October 2003 and he is currently training together with the ISS-8 expedition crew.

August 2003
By the data of ESA site and magazine News of Cosmonautics.

Spanish Astronaut Pedro Duque, mission specialist representing the European Space Agency during his first space flight onboard the Discovery Shuttle (STS-95) at a period from October 29 to November 7, 1998.

NASA photo