Spain’s First Astronaut, Pedro Duque, Named IEEE Honorary Member

Many youngsters fascinated by exploring outer space dream of becoming an astronaut, but few do. One who had the right stuff is Pedro Duque, who was Spain’s first astronaut. The aeronautics engineer flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station. After retiring as an astronaut, he headed Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities. Today he is the chairman of HispaSat, a Spanish satellite company. Pedro Duque Employer HispaSat in Madrid Title President and chairman of the board Member grade Honorary member Alma mater The Polytechnic University of Madrid Nearly 30 years after his first mission, Duque is still Spain’s most famous astronaut. Three public schools have been named after him, and he has received numerous awards. This year, the IEEE Board of Directors made him an IEEE honorary member for “contributions to space exploration, leadership in collaborative science and technology programs, and serving as a role model for younger generations.” He was unable to attend the 24 April ceremony in New York City, but he expressed his gratitude in recorded acceptance remarks in his award presentation shown during the event. “We engineers of all specialties recognize the leadership of your institute—the largest and most important engineering society in the world,” he says in the video. “What an honor it is to belong now to an organization whose purpose it is to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.” Inspired by Apollo 11 Duque says he knew he wanted to be an engineer from a young age. It’s not surprising that he became interested in aeronautics, as his father was an air traffic controller who explained to him how airplanes worked. In 1969, when he was 6 years old, he was inspired to become an astronaut after watching the Apollo 11 moon landing. “I didn’t know anyone who wasn’t attracted to space exploration,” after the moon landing, he says, laughing. “It was presented in such an epic manner, with declarations about its impact on society. The landing made us aware that humanity was exploring new places, and I was keen on knowing more about them.” His dream of becoming an astronaut was unrealistic at the time, he says, because the country had no space program. Spain was ruled by Francisco Franco, who spent little to no money on scientific innovation, Duque says. That changed after Franco died in 1975. The country transitioned to a democratic constitutional monarchy and began participating in research and development programs, particularly with the European Space Agency (ESA). Astronaut duties Duque earned an aeronautical engineering degree in 1986 from the aeronautical and space engineering school at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. His first job was as an engineer in the flight dynamics group at GMV, a space and technology company based in Madrid. He was a member of the orbit determination group and worked at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt, Germany. He helped develop algorithms, orbit computational software, and computer models. He was also a member of the space agency’s flight control team for the European Remote Sensing-1 satellite, launched in 1991, and the European Retrievable Carrier, launched in 1992 on the space shuttle Atlantis’s STS-46 mission. In 1990, ESA recruited candidates for its astronaut program—which Duque says rarely happens. He and several colleagues applied. “Why not?” he says. “What we thought we wanted to be when we were little was now possible.” After a considerable selection process, Duque was chosen in 1992 to join the agency’s Astronaut Corps. He trained at the European Astronaut Centre and at the Russian Cosmonaut Training Center (now known as the Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center). In 1994, he served as the prime crew interface coordinator on the ESA–Russian EuroMir space station. He managed communication between the astronauts on the Mir station and the European scientists to help ensure orbital experiments and operations ran smoothly. NASA selected Duque to be an alternate payload specialist on the ground for space shuttle Columbia’s STS-78 mission in 1996. In that role, he was trained to operate and manage scientific experiments, equipment, and cargo during a crewed mission. He also supported the flight from the ground as a crew interface coordinator. His first flight into space was in 1998 as a mission specialist representing the ESA on the space shuttle Discovery’s STS-95 mission. He managed in-orbit tasks, experiments, spacewalks, and equipment operations. He served as a flight engineer in 2003 onboard the Soyuz TMA-3 Cervantes, a joint mission between Russia and Spain to the International Space Station. He operated the station systems, managed daily maintenance tasks, and performed scientific experiments assisted by the mission commander. Memories of flying with John Glenn The years of training and preparation to become an astronaut were rigorous, he

Excerpt shown under the publisher's RSS terms · 154 words · full text and figures are on the publisher's site