NII TsPK picture

Douglas H. WHEELOCK

ISS-22/23 Flight Engineer,
Soyuz TMA Flight Engineer,
Colonel, U.S. Army,
NASA Astronaut, USA

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
Born May 5, 1960 in Binghamton, New York but considers Windsor, New York to be his hometown.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point in 1983 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Science and Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1992.

FAMILY STATUS: married.
Wife: Cathleen Hollen, they have one child.

AWARDS: Meritorious Service Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal.

WORK EXPERIENCE:
Since May 1983 he served in the U.S. Army. In 1984 Wheelock began his flight training and in September 1984 he became a pilot of the U.S. Army. He served in the Pacific Theater as a combat aviation Section Leader, Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer, Battalion Operations Officer, and Commander of an Air Cavalry Troop in the 9th U.S. Cavalry.
Then he was assigned to the Aviation Directorate of Combat Developments as an Advanced Weapons Research and Development Engineer. From January to December 1993 he studied at the US Naval Test Pilot School.
From 1994 he served as a test pilot at the Army Aviation Technical Test Center as Division Chief and was engaged in the areas of tactical reconnaissance and surveillance systems in support of the National Program Office for Intelligence and Electronic Warfare.
He is a graduate of the Army Airborne and Air Assault Courses, the Infantry and Aviation Officer Advanced Courses, the Combined Arms Services Staff School, the Material Acquisition Management Course, and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
In August 1996 Wheelock was assigned to the Johnson Space Center as a test engineer to provide the Shuttle equipment test. He was the team lead to provide the 8th docking of the Shuttle with the Russian Orbital Station Mir (a flight under the STS-86 program). He was assigned as a lead test engineer participating in the ISS hardware testing.

In June 1998 he was enlisted in NASA astronaut corps as a pilot (the 17th selection). Since August 1998 he passed a course of general space training. Having completed his studies in August 1999 he was qualified as a Shuttle pilot and assigned to NASA Astronaut Office, ISS Flight Control Department where he was involved in the following issues: organization of interaction with Russia and provision of compatibility of both countries hardware - software at the station. Wheelock took part in support of the first four unmanned spacecraft Progress flights to the ISS. In 2001 he was assigned as the support astronaut for the ISS-2 and ISS-4 crews. Since August 2002 he worked as a spacecraft Communicator and was the primary communication link between the crews.
He passed training in extravehicular activity (EVA) and the Canadian manipulator control.
On June 19, 2006 he was assigned as a mission specialist in STS-120 Shuttle crew.

Wheelock performed his first flight from October 23 to November 7, 2007 as a mission specialist in the crew of the Discovery Shuttle (STS-120). The main objective of the flight was to deliver the new Harmony module to the International Space Station and deploy P6 Solar Arrays.
During the flight he performed three EVAs of the following duration: 6 hr 14 min - October 26, 7 hr 8 min - October 30, 7 hr 19 min - November 3.
The total flight duration was 15 days 2 hr 24 min 55 s.

In July 2008 it was reported that he was assigned to the backup crew of Expedition 22 to the ISS. Concurrently it was reported that he was assigned to the prime crew of Expedition 24 to the ISS. On September 21, 2008 his assignment was confirmed in the ISS flight plan published by Roscosmos press-service. On November 21, 2008 his assignment was officially confirmed by NASA (release № 08-306) when declaring the ISS-20-ISS-26 crew members.

December 2009
Based on data of site www.astronaut.ru