NAME:
Scott E. Parazynski (M.D.)
NASA Astronaut
PERSONAL
DATA: Born July 28, 1961, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Considers Palo Alto, California, and Evergreen, Colorado, to be his hometowns. Married to the former Gail Marie Vozzella. They
have two children. He enjoys mountaineering, rock climbing, flying, SCUBA
diving, skiing, travel, woodworking, and nature photography. A commercial,
multi-engine, seaplane and instrument-rated pilot, Dr. Parazynski has logged
over 2000 flight hours in a variety of aircraft. As a mountaineer, his summits
include Cerro Aconcagua (at 22,841 feet above sea level, the tallest mountain
in the world outside of Asia) and 53 of Colorado's peaks over 14,000 feet in
altitude.
EDUCATION: Attended junior high school in Dakar, Senegal, and Beirut, Lebanon. Attended high school at the Tehran American School, Iran,
and the American Community School, Athens, Greece, graduating in 1979. He received a bachelor
of science degree in biology from Stanford University in 1983, continuing on to graduate
with honors from Stanford Medical School in 1989. He served his medical
internship at the Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School
(1990). He had completed 22 months of a residency program in emergency medicine
in Denver, Colorado when selected to the Astronaut Corps.
ORGANIZATIONS: Fellow of the Aerospace Medical
Association; Member of the American Society for Gravitational and Space
Biology, the Wilderness Medical Society, the American Alpine Club, the
Association of Space Explorers, the Experimental Aircraft Association, and the
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
SPECIAL
HONORS:
National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Training Award in Cancer Biology
(1983); Rhodes Scholarship finalist (1984); NASA Graduate Student Researcher's
Award (1988); Stanford Medical Scholars Program (1988); Research Honors Award
from Stanford Medical School (1989); NASA-Ames Certificate of Recognition
(1990); Wilderness Medical Society Research Award (1991); Space Station Team
Excellence Award (1996); NASA Exceptional Service Medals (1998, 1999); NASA
Space Flight Medals (1994, 1997, 1998, 2001); NASA Distinguished Service Medal
(2002).
While in
medical school, he competed on the United States Development Luge Team and was
ranked among the top 10 competitors in the nation during the 1988 Olympic
Trials. He also served as an Olympic Team Coach for the Philippines during the 1988 Olympic Winter
Games in Calgary, Canada.
EXPERIENCE: While an undergraduate at Stanford University, Dr. Parazynski studied antigenic variation in African Sleeping
Sickness, using sophisticated molecular biological techniques. While in medical
school, he was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Fellowship and conducted
research at NASA-Ames Research Center on fluid shifts that occur during
human space flight. Additionally, he has been involved in the design of several
exercise devices that are being developed for long-duration space flight, and
has conducted research on high-altitude acclimatization. Dr. Parazynski has
numerous publications in the field of space physiology, and has a particular
expertise in human adaptation to stressful environments.
NASA
EXPERIENCE:
Selected as an astronaut in March 1992, Dr. Parazynski reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. He completed one
year of training and evaluation, and was qualified as a mission specialist. Dr.
Parazynski initially served as one of the crew representatives for
extravehicular activity (EVA) in the Astronaut Office Mission Development
Branch. Following his first flight, he was assigned as a backup for the third
American long-duration stay aboard Russia's Space Station Mir,
and was expected to serve as a prime crew member on a subsequent mission. He
spent 5-months in training at the Gargarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia. In October 1995, when
sitting-height parameters raised concerns about his fitting safely in the Soyuz vehicle in the event of an
emergency on-board the Mir
station, he was deemed too tall for the mission and was withdrawn from Mir training. He served as the Astronaut
Office Operations Planning Branch crew representative for Space Shuttle, Space
Station and Soyuz training, and
also served as Deputy (Operations and Training) of the Astronaut Office ISS
Branch. Most recently, he served as Chief of the Astronaut Office EVA Branch.
In the aftermath of the Columbia tragedy, he was the Astronaut
Office Lead for Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System Inspection and Repair.
A veteran of four space flights, STS-66 (1994), STS-86 (1997), STS-95 (1998),
and STS-100 (2001), Dr. Parazynski has logged over 1,019 hours (6 weeks) in
space, including 20 hours of EVA, and traveled over 17 million miles. Recently
reassigned from STS-118 to STS-120, Dr. Parazynski will serve as the Lead
Spacewalker (EV1) that delivers the Node 2 connecting module to the
International Space Station. The mission will also feature a major EVA/robotic
relocation of the P6 Truss during the 2nd and 3rd spacewalks.
SPACE
FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: The STS-66 Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science-3
(ATLAS-3) mission was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on November 3, 1994, and returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on November 14, 1994. ATLAS-3 was part of an on-going program to determine the
earth's energy balance and atmospheric change over an 11-year solar cycle, particularly
with respect to humanity's impact on global-ozone distribution. Dr. Parazynski
had responsibility for a number of on-orbit activities including operation of
the ATLAS experiments and Spacelab Pallet, as well as several secondary
experiments in the crew cabin. He and his crewmates also successfully evaluated
the Interlimb Resistance Device, a free-floating exercise he developed to
prevent musculoskeletal atrophy in microgravity. The Space Shuttle Atlantis circled the earth 175 times and
traveled over 4.5 million miles during its 262-hour and 34-minute flight.
STS-86 Atlantis (September 25 to October 6,
1997) was the seventh mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space
Station Mir. Highlights of the mission included the exchange of U.S. crewmembers Mike Foale and David Wolf, the transfer
of 10,400 pounds of science and logistics, and the first Shuttle-based joint
American-Russian spacewalk. Dr. Parazynski served as the flight engineer (MS2)
during the flight, and was also the navigator during the Mir rendezvous. Dr. Parazynski (EV1) and
Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Titov performed a 5 hour, 1 minute spacewalk during
which they retrieved four experiment packages first deployed during the STS-76
Shuttle-Mir docking mission.
They also deployed the Spektr
Solar Array Cap, which was designed to be used in a future Mir spacewalk to seal a leak in the Spektr module's damaged hull. Other
objectives of EVA included the evaluation of common EVA tools to be used by
astronauts wearing either Russian or American-made spacesuits, and a systems
flight test of the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER). The Space Shuttle Atlantis circled the earth 169 times and
traveled over 4.2 million miles during its 259-hour and 21-minute flight,
landing at the Kennedy Space Center.
STS-95 Discovery (October 29 to November 7,
1998) was a 9-day mission during which the crew supported a variety of research
payloads, including deployment of the Spartan solar-observing spacecraft and
the testing of the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform. The
crew also conducted investigations on the correlation between space flight and
the aging process. Dr. Parazynski was the flight engineer (MS2) for the
mission, as well as the navigator for the Spartan spacecraft rendezvous. During
the flight, he also operated the Shuttle's robotic arm in support of the
testing of several space-vision systems being considered for ISS assembly. In
addition, he was responsible for monitoring several life sciences
investigations, including those involving crewmate Senator John Glenn. The
mission was accomplished in 134 earth orbits, traveling 3.6 million miles in
213-hours and 44-minutes.
STS-100 Endeavour (April 19 to May 1, 2001) was
the 9th mission to the International Space Station (ISS) Alpha during which the crew successfully
delivered and installed the Space Station "Canadarm2" robotic arm, to be used for all future Space
Station assembly and maintenance tasks. Dr. Parazynski conducted two spacewalks
with Canadian colleague Chris Hadfield to assemble and power the next
generation robotic arm. Additionally, the pair installed a new UHF radio
antenna for space-to-space communications during Space Shuttle rendezvous and
ISS extravehicular activity. A critical on-orbit spare, a direct current switching
unit, was also transferred to Alpha
during the 14 hours and 50 minutes of EVA work. Also during the flight, Dr. Parazynski
operated Endeavour's robotic
arm to install, and later remove, the Italian-built "Raffaello" Multi-Purpose Logistics
Module. Traveling 4.9 million miles in 283-hours and 30-minutes, the mission
was accomplished in 186 earth orbits.
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