Michael Lopez-Alegria

Infobox Astronaut

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type =NASA Astronaut
status =Active
nationality =American / Spanish
date_birth =May 30, 1958
place_birth =Madrid, Spain
date_death =
place_death =
occupation =Engineering test pilot
rank =Captain, USN
selection =1992 NASA Group
time =257d 22h 46m
mission =STS-73, STS-92, STS-113 , Soyuz TMA-9, Expedition 14
insignia =|

Miguel Eladio "LA" López-Alegría (also known as Michael López-Alegría 30 May 1958) is a Spanish American astronaut and a veteran of three space shuttle missions and one International Space Station mission.

Lopez-Alegria was born in Madrid (Spain) and raised in Mission Viejo, California. Lopez-Alegria joined the United States Navy, where he earned engineering degrees in 1980, and 1988 from the Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School. His fleet experience in the Navy was at VQ-2 in Rota, Spain and the Naval Test Pilot School, Pax River. A natural leader, he was the top Lieutenant of 60 in the second largest aviation wardroom in the Navy (105 officers). He made many connections with Spanish military and civilian personnel while in Spain for his first tour that have made him very popular and well-known in Spanish media. He was one of the few EP-3E pilots in the squadron to get time in the EA-3B.

His first space mission was STS-73 in 1995; for several years afterwards he led NASA's International Space Station (ISS) Crew Operations office before returning to space aboard STS-92 in 2000 and STS-113 in 2002.

On 19 September 2006 he docked with the ISS as Commander of Expedition 14, having taken off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on 18 september, onboard Soyuz TMA-9. On Expedition 14, he has performed five spacewalks. On 21 April 2007 he undocked from the ISS and returned back to Earth.

Lopez-Alegria holds the all time American record for number of EVA's (10) and total EVA duration (67 hours and 40 minutes). The previous record holder, Jerry L. Ross had a total of 9 EVA's with a duration of 58 hours and 18 minutes. On April 2, 2007, Lopez-Alegria set the record for the longest space mission of any American astronaut. When he landed on April 21, his time in space on a single mission was 215 days. [cite web | url = http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp15/070409docking.html | title = Soyuz docks to station | publisher = Spaceflight Now] (The longest space mission on record is that of Valeriy Polyakov, who spent 437 days aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1994 and 1995.)

On October 19, 2007, Lopez-Alegria visited his old high school Mission Viejo High School, where he told the students about his space travel expedition.

List of EVAs:

* 10/16/2000 7:07 hours STS-92, EVA 2
* 10/18/2000 6:56 hours STS-92, EVA 4
* 11/26/2002 6:45 hours STS-113, EVA 1
* 11/28/2002 6:10 hours STS-113, EVA 2
* 11/30/2002 7:00 hours STS-113, EVA 3
* 11/22/2006 7:39 hours ISS Expedition 14, EVA 1
* 01/31/2007 7:55 hours ISS Expedition 14, EVA 2
* 02/04/2007 7:11 hours ISS Expedition 14, EVA 3
* 02/07/2007 6:39 hours ISS Expedition 14, EVA 4
* 02/22/2007 6:18 hours ISS Expedition 14, EVA 5

At the end of his mission, he commanded the longest flight by a Soyuz spacecraft, making Expedition 14 the longest expedition thus far. López-Alegría broke the record for longest spaceflight by an American astornaut.

References

External links

* [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lopez-al.html NASA Biography]
* [http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/astronauts/english/lopez-alegris_michael.htm Spacefacts biography of Michael Lopez-Alegria]