James F. Reilly

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James Reilly
James Reilly
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on December 8, 1994
( 15th NASA Group )
Calls: 3 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		January 23, 1998
Landing of the
last space flight: 		June 22, 2007
Time in space: 35d 10h 35min
EVA inserts: 5
EVA total duration: 30h 43min
retired on May 22, 2008
Space flights
Jim Reilly (2018)

James Francis "Jim" Reilly II (born March 18, 1954 at Mountain Home Air Force Base , Idaho ) is a retired American astronaut and since May 2018 Director of the United States Geological Survey .

Life

Born in Idaho, Reilly grew up in Mesquite ( Texas on), a suburb of the 20 kilometers away Dallas . After graduating from high school in 1972, he majored in geosciences at the University of Texas . Immediately after completing his bachelor's degree in 1977, he joined a geological expedition as a research scientist, which spent two years doing research in Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica.

In 1979, Reilly was employed as a geologist by Santa Fe Minerals in Dallas, before moving to Enserch Exploration a year later. There he soon made it from a simple geologist to a senior geologist and gained experience in the development of oil deposits at home (especially the Gulf of Mexico) and abroad. As part of his work at Enserch, he spent around three weeks together in deep diving vehicles.

His employment also allowed him to continue his geology studies. In 1987 he received his Masters in Geosciences from the University of Texas and received his PhD in this discipline in the spring of 1995, just before he came to NASA . His dissertation dealt with geological controls in the distribution of chemosynthetic communities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Astronaut activity

Reilly has a nice anecdote to tell that led him to become an astronaut: Seven-year-old Jim was sitting in a dentist's chair when John Glenn made his historic flight in February 1962. It was a screening in elementary school, and of course Reilly Junior wished he was a long way away. As he was about to wish he was far away, the doctor asked him if he had ever wanted to be a spaceman in his young life. That got the ball rolling, as Reilly said later. He started writing letters to NASA regularly. And finally, he wanted to give his professional career the decisive turn and applied in Houston as a mission specialist. Then he felt like many others - his application fell through, and not just once. At times he thought he'd never make it. But he persisted and wanted to realize his childhood dream.

Reilly had unsuccessfully applied to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) as an astronaut for ten years . It was not until his fifth application in December 1994 that he was accepted along with 18 other applicants. He was assigned to the computer department of the astronauts office after completing the one-year basic training in 1996.

In March 1997, Reilly was assigned to STS-89 for his first space shuttle flight . The Endeavor flew to the Russian Mir space station and performed the eighth coupling of a US orbiter. There was a change of guard during the visit: the Endeavor crew left Andy Thomas and ended up with David Wolf, who had worked on the orbital station for four months. The mission was part of the Shuttle Mir program and took place in January 1998.

After a short recovery period, Reilly started training for his second flight. He and Mike Gernhardt were the first members of the STS-104 crew to be nominated in 1997. The space shuttle Atlantis brought the Quest airlock to the International Space Station (ISS) in the summer of 2001 . Reilly and Gernhardt took three exits to install Quest.

Since autumn 2002, Reilly has been part of the crew of STS-117 as a mission specialist . This two-week flight took place in June 2007 to the International Space Station. The main payload of the Atlantis was the S3 / S4 element . Together with Danny Olivas , he carried out two of the four space missions. The S3 / S4 component was mounted on the station, the solar panels extended and the second wing of the P6 solar module retracted.

According to NASA

In May 2008, it was announced that Reilly would be leaving NASA and joining Photo Stencil as Vice President of Research and Development .

Donald Trump nominated James F. Reilly in January 2018 for the office of Director of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which he assumed after confirmation by the US Senate on May 14 of the same year.

Private

Reilly, who was named Honorary Marshal in 2001 , is married with two sons and a daughter.

See also

Web links

Commons : James F. Reilly  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Astronaut James Reilly departs NASA. May 21, 2008, accessed May 23, 2008 .
  2. ↑ US Department of the Interior: Dr. Jim Reilly Takes the Helm at the US Geological Survey. May 14, 2018, accessed July 28, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Reilly, James F.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reilly, James Francis II; Reilly, Jim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut and director of the United States Geological Survey
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Mountain Home Air Force Base , Idaho