Celebrating a local heroBy Mark DouglasWhen Andy Thomas first graduated fromthe University of Adelaide 50 years ago,travelling into space as an astronaut was animpossible dream. Australians didn’t do that– space was for people from other countries.Fast forward 23 years and he was beingstrapped into his seat in the space shuttleEndeavour, preparing for lift off and his first“job” in Earth orbit.During his career as a NASA astronaut,Andy completed four space flights, spendinga total of 177 days, nine hours and 14minutes in space – including 20 weeks onthe Russian Mir Space Station. That time onMir gave him the rare distinction of beingboth an astronaut, and a cosmonaut.Realising that his health, education, physicalattributes and work experience fulfilledNASA’s astronaut criteria, he applied forthe astronaut program. He had taken on UScitizenship some years earlier, so he sent offhis application “with the full expectationthat I would not succeed”.“I remember putting the phone down andthinking, wow, my life has just changed in anunbelievable way,” he says.Following an extensive interview process,NASA called in March 1992 to ask if he wasstill interested, and told him he had beenaccepted as an astronaut candidate.In May 1996 he was appointed payloadcommander in the six-person crew ofthe space shuttle Endeavour on a 10-daymission.In 2001 he was on board the shuttleDiscovery when it docked with theInternational Space Station (ISS). Duringthis mission, he completed a 6.5-hourspacewalk to install components on theexterior of the station.Andy’s final space flight was in July andAugust of 2005, when the Discoveryreturned to the ISS. It was NASA’s firstspace flight following the space shuttleColumbia disaster in 2003.Doctor Andrew Sydney Withiel Thomas,AO, was born on 18 December 1951.He studied mechanical engineering at theUniversity of Adelaide, graduating in 1973with Honours. In 1978 he was awarded hisPhD – also from the University of Adelaide– and he became an Honorary Doctor of theUniversity (honoris causa) in 2006.After graduation, Andy embarked ona career in aerodynamics research atLockheed Aeronautical Systems Companyin Georgia (USA), becoming manager of itsFlight Sciences Division at the age of 35.This was a prestigious career in its ownright, and a time he looks back on fondly.“But I always had this nagging feeling thatthere had to be something more for me,”he says. “That’s what led me to pursue thegoal of becoming an astronaut. I knew itwould be better to try and fail than to nevertry at all.”4THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDEAndy Thomas celebrates his graduation in 1973At the age of 40 he started NASA’s rigorous12 months of training, including up to 40bouts of ‘weightlessness’ a day, to become afully-fledged member of the astronaut corps.
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