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Astronaut Leroy Chiao phones home from International Space Station
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NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao performs a test in the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which carries the crew to and from the space station. The suit Chiao is wearing is pressurized for protection in case they lose pressure inside the spacecraft during the trip. At right, Chiao's view of the moon from the space station.
PHOTO COURTESY LEROY CHIAO AND NASA
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Leroy Chiao (B.S.’83 ChemE) likes to keep in touch. From his temporary home on the International Space Station, he regularly e-mailed his parents and—whenever satellite conditions allowed—made weekly calls to their Fairfield home. A proud fan of Bears football, he phoned members of the team from the station to wish them luck in January’s Holiday Bowl. He even voted last November, becoming the first American to vote in space for president.
From 260 miles above the border between Chile and Argentina, Chiao checked in with Forefront one day to talk about his space station experience. After six months in orbit, what did he miss most?
“I miss my family and friends most of all,” Chiao says. “Besides that, I miss nature, the smell of the fields after a rain, feeling the heat of the sun or a cool wind. And, of course, the food!”
From October 13, 2004, to April 25, 2005, Chiao served as commander of the two-man crew on the International Space Station, the joint program of the U.S., Russia, Canada, Japan, and Europe to operate a permanent station in space. The tenth crew to continuously staff the complex since November 2000, Chiao and Russian crewmate Salizhan Sharipov spent 193 days managing daily operations, taking spacewalks to service external systems, and conducting scientific research on humans living in zero gravity (themselves), all while orbiting the Earth at a speed of about five miles per second.
“This mission and becoming commander of the station is the culmination of my career,” Chiao says. “It’s my chance to bring together all the experiences and skills I’ve learned in my 15 years as an astronaut.”
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Chiao's view of the moon from the International Space Station
PHOTO COURTESY LEROY CHIAO AND NASA
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Now a veteran of four shuttle missions and six spacewalks, Chiao is considered an expert in extravehicular activity (EVA), the art of dexterously performing manual operations in a spacesuit loaded with 500 pounds of gear.
“Anyone can be a gymnast in zero gravity,” Chiao says. “But the challenge is working in a spacesuit. It’s like being inside a balloon. You’re weightless but you still have momentum, so every time you touch a handrail you start spinning off in the other direction.”
The hardest part, he says, is staying focused and dealing intelligently with inevitable glitches, especially when the view is so “exhilarating.” His Berkeley education served him well in that regard, Chiao says, making him self-sufficient and focused on his goals.
“Cal had a tremendous effect on me, maybe the biggest in my life,” he says. “I graduated near the top of my high school class, but so did everyone else. There was no handholding; we had to learn to rely on ourselves to get things done.” Between his Berkeley years and joining NASA in 1990, he completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering at UC Santa Barbara, then worked briefly at Hexcel in Dublin and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, where his father was a chemical engineer.
“Since the moment he watched the moon landing on TV [at age eight], he got very excited,” says Chiao’s mother Cherry (Ph.D.’76 MSE). “When he built a space vessel in the garage, I thought he was just playing. But then in graduate school he started talking about becoming an astronaut; that’s when we knew he was serious.”
Chiao tells anyone with similar aspirations to choose a field that will qualify them for the job, but more importantly, one they are deeply interested and involved in, since NASA selects astronauts from many fields.
“Becoming an astronaut was a dream for me,” Chiao says. “You’ve got to have a dream. The worst thing that can happen is that you come to the end of your life and you realize you didn’t work hard to try to achieve it.”
But what about that freeze-dried, thermo-stabilized, irradiated food?
“Once we get to space, we get used to it,” says Chiao. “It becomes really delicious, especially after a few days. I believe that, with a reset of expectations, humans are remarkably adaptable.”
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