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Colin Michael FOALE

ISS Commander,
Flight Engineer-2 of the Soyuz TMA Trasport Spacecraft
NASA Astronaut, USA

DATA AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Born January 6, 1957, in Louth, England, but considers Cambridge, England, to be his hometown. Citizen of USA and Great Britain. His parents, Colin and Mary Foale, reside in Cambridge, England.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from Kings School, Canterbury, England, in 1975. Received a bachelor of arts degree in Physics at the University of Cambridge, Queens' College in 1978 and then a doctorate in Astrophysics Laboratory at Cambridge University in 1982.

FAMILY STATUS: Married to the former Rhonda R. Butler of Loisville, Kentucky; he has two children.

HONOURS: NASA Medals for Space Mission (1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999).

HOBBY: Wind surfing, flying, gliding, underwater swimming, programming.

WORK EXPERIENCE:
To participate in the implementation of the U.S. Space Program Foale moves to Houston, Texas, where he works on Space Shuttle navigation problems at McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation.

NASA EXPERIENCE:
In June 1983 Foale joined NASA Johnson Space Center in the payload operations department.
In June 1987 he was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA.
From August 1987 to August 1988 he passed a course of general space training and was qualified as a mission specialist.
He is a veteran of five space flights and has logged altogether 178 days 23 r 44 in 15 s including three space walks of the total duration: 18 hr 49 min.
In the first mission from March 24 to April 2, 1992 he was a mission specialist of Atlantis (STS-45) with ATLAS-1 laboratory; the mission duration was 8 days 22 hr 9 min 28 s. The main mission objective was to conduct the Earth atmosphere studies.
In the second mission from April 9-17, 1993 he was a mission specialist of Discovery (STS-56) with ATLAS-2 laboratory and SPARTAN satellite for observation of the solar corona. The mission duration was 9 days 6 hr 8 min 24 s.
In the third mission from February 3-11, 1995 he was a mission specialist onboard Discovery (STS-63); it was the first rendezvous (up to 10 m) of STS-63 with the Russian Space Station Mir. During the mission he made a space walk lasting 4 hr 39 min. The mission duration was 8 days 6 hr 28 min 15 s.
The forth mission: he was launched into space on May 15, 1997 as a mission specialist of Atlantis (STS-84). From May 17 to October 3 he worked onboard the Russian Space Station Mir as flight engineer-2 of EC-23 together with the Russian cosmonauts. He worked together with A. Soloviev inside the Spektr depressurized module and spent in space for about 6 hours. He returned to the Earth by the Atlantis Shuttle (STS-86) on October 6, 1997. The duration of staying in space was 144 days 13 hr 47 min 21 s.
In the fifth mission from December 20-28, 1999 he was a mission specialist of Discovery (STS-103).The mission duration was 7 days 23 hr 10 min 47 s. The main mission objective was to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. During the mission he made a space walk lasting 8 hr 10 min.
He trained for a space mission within ISS-7 backup crew as a flight engineer.
Foale is currently training for a space mission within ISS-8 expedition crew as the commander.

April 2003
By the data of Lindon B. Johnson Space Center, NASA, USA.