Adelaide educates Andy Thomas who goes into space four times as mechanical engineer for NASA over 22 years

Andy Thomas, Australia's first astronaut, gained his bachelor and doctorate in mechanical engineering at Adelaide University.
Image by courtesy of NASA

Andy Thomas, Australia’s first space astronaut, made four missions during 22 years with NASA in the United States.

Adelaide-born and educated at St Andrew’s Primary School, Walkerville; St Peter’s College and Adelaide University (bachelor and doctorate in mechanical engineering), in 1978 he joined Lockheed in Atlanta, rising to principal aerodynamic scientist by 1990.

Thomas was selected by NASA in 1992 and appointed  to the astronaut corps. While awaiting space flight assignment, Thomas supported shuttle launch and landing operations as an astronaut support person at the Kennedy Space Centre.

He provided technical support to the space shuttle main engine project, the solid rocket motor project and the external tank project at the Marshall Space Flight Centre. Thomas was named as payload commander for STS-77 and flew his first flight in space on Endeavour in 1996. Although Paul Scully-Power had entered orbit as an oceanographer in 1985, Thomas was the first Australia-born professional astronaut to enter space.

Thomas next trained at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, to serve as board engineer 2 aboard the Russian Space Station Mir for 130 days.
STS-102 (2001) was the eighth shuttle mission to the international space station and Thomas's third flight. During the mission, Thomas spent 6.5 hours on installing components to the outside of the space station.

From 2001-2003, Thomas served as deputy chief of the NASA Astronaut Office. He completed his fourth space flight on STS-114 and logged over 177 days in space. He was working with exploration branch of the Astronaut Office until he retired NASA in 2014.