Charles Camarda

Charles Camarda
Country:	United States
Organization:	NASA
selected on	May 1, 1996 (16th NASA Group)
Calls:	1 space flight
Begin:	July 26, 2005
Landing:	August 9, 2005
Time in space:	13d 21h 32min
retired on	June 2006
Space flights
STS-114 (2005)

Charles Joseph "Charlie" Camarda (born May 8, 1952 in Queens , New York City ) is a former American astronaut .

Life

Camarda attended Archbishop Molloy High School in Jamaica in the New York borough of Queens until 1970.

After Camarda 1974 a Bachelor in aerospace engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn had acquired, he worked as a scientist at Langley Research Center of NASA in Hampton ( Virginia ). There he was responsible for the development of the cooling system for the space shuttle , which was then in the planning phase. During that time, he also earned a Masters in Engineering from George Washington University in 1980 .

From 1989 Camarda was department head in materials research for the Rockwell X-30 , a planned missile that should reach earth orbit with only one drive stage. Camarda received his PhD in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech in 1990.

In 1994, Camarda was named Area Manager of the Thermal Structures Branch, which specializes primarily in high-speed research and reusable launch vehicle concepts.

Astronaut activity

Camarda applied to NASA as a spaceman and was accepted into NASA's 16th astronaut group in 1996. His first nomination was as a replacement for ISS Expedition 8 , which started in October 2003 with the Soyuz TMA-3 .

Charles Camarda made his first space flight from July 26 to August 9, 2005 with the space shuttle Discovery on the STS-114 mission . It was the first flight after the Columbia crash .

Camarda was promoted to Director, Engineering within NASA and was also a member of the Mission Management Team for the next space flight STS-121 . Due to internal differences, however, he was relieved of these functions in June 2006, a week before the start, and transferred to the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC).

Camarda holds seven patents on various inventions, including a "heat pipe cooled sandwich panel" at NASA. He is a second married and has four children and stepchildren.

He retired from active service in June 2006.

Web links

Commons : Charles Camarda  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• NASA Crew Profile (English, with family photos)

supporting documents

• Short biography of Charles Camarda at spacefacts.de
• NASA biography of Charles Camarda (PDF)
• Biography of Charles Camarda in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)