Lumen Spring Summer 2023 - Flipbook - Page 4
Celebrating a local hero
By Mark Douglas
When Andy Thomas first graduated from
the University of Adelaide 50 years ago,
travelling into space as an astronaut was an
impossible dream. Australians didn’t do that
– space was for people from other countries.
Fast forward 23 years and he was being
strapped into his seat in the space shuttle
Endeavour, preparing for lift off and his first
“job” in Earth orbit.
During his career as a NASA astronaut,
Andy completed four space flights, spending
a total of 177 days, nine hours and 14
minutes in space – including 20 weeks on
the Russian Mir Space Station. That time on
Mir gave him the rare distinction of being
both an astronaut, and a cosmonaut.
Realising that his health, education, physical
attributes and work experience fulfilled
NASA’s astronaut criteria, he applied for
the astronaut program. He had taken on US
citizenship some years earlier, so he sent off
his application “with the full expectation
that I would not succeed”.
“I remember putting the phone down and
thinking, wow, my life has just changed in an
unbelievable way,” he says.
Following an extensive interview process,
NASA called in March 1992 to ask if he was
still interested, and told him he had been
accepted as an astronaut candidate.
In May 1996 he was appointed payload
commander in the six-person crew of
the space shuttle Endeavour on a 10-day
mission.
In 2001 he was on board the shuttle
Discovery when it docked with the
International Space Station (ISS). During
this mission, he completed a 6.5-hour
spacewalk to install components on the
exterior of the station.
Andy’s final space flight was in July and
August of 2005, when the Discovery
returned to the ISS. It was NASA’s first
space flight following the space shuttle
Columbia disaster in 2003.
Doctor Andrew Sydney Withiel Thomas,
AO, was born on 18 December 1951.
He studied mechanical engineering at the
University of Adelaide, graduating in 1973
with Honours. In 1978 he was awarded his
PhD – also from the University of Adelaide
– and he became an Honorary Doctor of the
University (honoris causa) in 2006.
After graduation, Andy embarked on
a career in aerodynamics research at
Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company
in Georgia (USA), becoming manager of its
Flight Sciences Division at the age of 35.
This was a prestigious career in its own
right, and a time he looks back on fondly.
“But I always had this nagging feeling that
there had to be something more for me,”
he says. “That’s what led me to pursue the
goal of becoming an astronaut. I knew it
would be better to try and fail than to never
try at all.”
4
THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
Andy Thomas celebrates his graduation in 1973
At the age of 40 he started NASA’s rigorous
12 months of training, including up to 40
bouts of ‘weightlessness’ a day, to become a
fully-fledged member of the astronaut corps.
