Leroy Chiao
Leroy Chiao is an American chemical engineer, entrepreneur, former NASA astronaut, and International . Selected in NASA Astronaut Group 13 in 1990, he became one of the astronauts who carried the shuttle program into permanent station operations.
- Born
- August 28, 1960
- Died
- N/A
- Birthplace
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin,United States
Flights
4
Spacewalks
6
EVA time
36 hours, 7 minutes
In space
229 days, 7 hours, 38 minutes
Bio
Chiao entered NASA after chemical-engineering research and work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His early shuttle flights, STS-65 and STS-72, involved Spacelab science, satellite retrieval, and operations, giving him both laboratory and spacewalk experience before the ISS era.
On STS-92, Chiao helped install early station truss and docking hardware during one of the key assembly missions for the International Space Station. That mission tied his shuttle career directly to the construction of the outpost he would later command.
His fourth flight launched on Soyuz TMA-5, where he served as commander of 10. From October 2004 to April 2005, Chiao lived aboard the ISS, conducted research, maintained station systems, received visiting vehicles, and performed EVAs with Salizhan Sharipov.
After NASA, Chiao remained active in aerospace, education, public communication, and commercial space consulting. it spans Spacelab, shuttle assembly, Soyuz operations, ISS command, and post-NASA space entrepreneurship.